Days of Chaos
by A Dog in Fox Clothing
Summary: "Do you know what a hero is?" Twenty five years in the future, everyone has gone on with their lives. With the arrival of Makoto, youngest son of Nyx, and a new threat to the world looming over the horizon, their days of peace are about to twist and turn in ways no-one will expect. Trapped in a new conflict, maybe Makoto will find an answer to his question.
1. Falling From Heaven - Edited

He fell from heaven.

Wind was cold. Moonlight was white. The sky was ocean. Was it water he fell in, or just the downpour around him he fell too fast through?

Lightning shocked his body so he couldn't move. He was shackled to the ground, just like all the others. However, relief poured into him. "Hey, don't die on me. I know you can't, but don't die on me," Makoto heard.

"It's fine. I'm awake." Makoto shifted ever so slightly so his scarf wouldn't block his words. Sentences were short with a caved in rib cage, like his breathing. He thought that the crushing weight all over him was what drowning felt like. He thought it was strange that he could think.

"That's good. Can you move?"

"Does it look like I can?"

"Not really."

"Screw you Yuri."

"Screw you too." Yuri grinned and scooped the broken Makoto into his hands, ignoring hisses as bones were nudged off course. "What happened?"

"I was pushed off the building," Makoto explained through snatches of air. "There's a Shadow back there."

"Oh really?" He turned and saw the white knight behind him sculpted from clay. Yuri scoffed and blue fog mixed with the dampness. Breezes stirred, brewing up a howl to shake the night. "Suppose I have to deal with it then."

Fatigue had already latched onto the figure's armour. After a fall that high, it would be more surprising to see it pristine. The Knight didn't cower at the light rising into the ether, only raising its joust and rousing its steed.

A slim figure with a concealed by its cloak coloured with storm clouds appeared, cool assurance in its smirk. With a crack of his lightning whip, legions of legions of thunder signalled beams that parted the darkness. White blue gashes split the rainy air, belting on the Knight. Tendrils of lightning leaped across the asphalt, leaving the bitterness of smoulder and the satisfaction of a victory.

Yuri smirked as his ethereal companion faded. That Shadow didn't have a chance. "Thanks."

"It's cool. How did you fly off from the building again?"

"I was pushed off by Arashi," Makoto sighed. He immediately regretted that as sharp pains stuck into him. "I took him down with me. Fell on a sign. Fell on the ground. Didn't soften the fall."

"Better get you checked out by Shiroe's mum then," Yuri nodded.

Makoto didn't have the heart to reply properly and only nodded before closing his eyes. He only laughed to himself and started walking, trying not to cause him any more pain.

Similarly, Makoto had fallen from the sky many months ago, although for a different reason. He hadn't expected to land in someone's backyard. Upon collision, there was pain and he could not move with his broken bones. Upon collision, there was also a very audible 'thud' which led two teens outside.

One of them was Amaya. The other being dragged along by her was called Shiroe. "Holy shit! How the hell did this drunk guy get in here!?" she exclaimed and scrambled over to the depression that Makoto had made in the ground.

"U-Um, Amaya? Are you sure you should go near him?" Shiroe asked and stopped just behind her, observing the scene from there.

Makoto wanted to say _something_ but his body absolutely protested. Even his jaw. "What the hell are you doing here?" Amaya asked. She folded her arms and stood tall, exuding confidence and oppression. It was quite formidable, to no effect. It wasn't like he couldn't move already.

His attempted response was unintelligible dribble. Makoto cursed. Jaw, and therefore, mouth, was not in order.

"He must be really drunk, if he can't talk..." Shiroe mumbled.

"Probably." Her companion sighed, perhaps in relief.

"I'm not drunk," Makoto groaned.

"How many fingers am I holding up?"

"Three."

"Oh good. You haven't answered my question."

"I fell from the sky."

"Are you sure you aren't drunk?"

"Yes."

The whole exchange still made her sceptical. "I'm supposed to believe you...

"Anyways, get out of here. You can't just stay in someone's house like that, much less crash here somehow." Amaya shook her head.

"I can't move."

"Why?"

"I fell from the sky." Makoto blinked at Amaya, who shot daggers at him. Right. Sceptic.

"W-Wait, does that mean your bones are broken...?" Shiroe asked, shifting awkwardly.

"Yes."

At this point, she was obviously not convinced, but Shiroe was. "Then Amaya, shouldn't we call an ambulance or something?"

"Why don't you call them?" Amaya deadpanned at him. He whimpered in response. "Oh alright, I guess we should call them anyways."

At this point, Makoto chose to close his eyes. He was too tired and hurt too much to formulate a response which didn't take much energy. "He's going to sleep?" Shiroe wondered aloud.

"Come on Shiroe, let's call 'em," Amaya sighed. After an 'oh, right!' he began to follow after his friend.

Makoto sighed. He was pretty much ready to let anything happen at this point. With his powers spent just trying to heal himself, he'd chosen to go to sleep. Sleep was his friend. It helped him heal faster like in people, but even better.

It wasn't like he was human after all. No-one simply survives a fall from several hundred metres above the ground. Yes, he had almost every bone in his body broken, but most people would be dead—not just injured.

After a while, the ambulance did make their way to Amaya's house and they carried the sleeping Makoto away to the hospital. Trying to get any details out of him while he was out was quite difficult. It wasn't much easier when he woke up either.

When they tried to use x-rays, yes, his bones came up as utterly broken the first time (which only raised the question of how he was surviving with all the shards embedded in his organs). The second time... there were less cracks? The narrator doesn't necessarily claim to know how hospitals work by the way. She apologises for any inaccuracies presented in this work of fiction.

He was eventually transferred to a room, where he later woke in lesser pain. Makoto wasn't inclined to move, but didn't have to when the next person of vague interest (besides a doctor or nurse) shuffled past the end of his bed. This person only glanced at Makoto for a moment, musing that they'd decided to add another person to this ward when he wasn't looking. Then, he walked to his bed-next to Makoto's.

There was a sigh as the bed accommodated his weight. Makoto registered the shuffling of blankets as the person lay in it.

Seeing as there was nothing else of interest he was about to go back to sleep and keep healing when that person's voice came, "How'd you get in here?"

Makoto was close to ignoring him. "I broke all my bones. They're healing."

"Cool."

Silence.

"I fell from the sky."

"Oh really?"

He briefly wondered whether the boy next to him was just humouring him. "Yeah."

"So why aren't you dead?"

Or not. Makoto closed his eyes. "I can't die."

"Is that a good thing, or a bad thing?" he asked through a set of coughs.

Makoto waited for him to finish coughing before answering. "It's... a good thing." His voice was shaky.

Another few moments of silence passed. "I'm Yuri Yamato."

He pondered whether he should introduce himself. But really, would it hurt? "I'm Makoto."

"No last name?"

Silence.

"Cool. Good night."

He closed his eyes too. "Good night." Makoto dreamed that night and he hadn't in a while. He didn't tend to remember his dreams when he woke up. This time, he did. They were flashes of being stuck in a storm with that boy's voice by his side. It wasn't understandable.

Cold light roused him. He sat up.

"It's seven in the morning," Makoto heard. He saw the boy named Yuri near the foot of his bed, the brightness accentuating his thin features. Bone threatened to show through his face, but his blue eyes still looked sharp. The two boy's eyes were similar in colour, but different in quality.

"Is that early?"

"So-so," Yuri said. "I'm waiting for food."

"Okay."

"How did your bones heal that quickly?" he asked.

"I heal fast."

"Fair enough." He chuckled. "Lucky."

Makoto cocked his head, narrowing his eyes a little. "Why lucky?"

Yuri sat, getting comfortable on the mattress. "I've been stuck in here for a really long while. I don't go out on my own often," he explained, making patterns with the wrinkles in Makoto's blanket. "I wish I could heal just like that."

"You can't?"

"None of the treatments really work, but I'm still kicking," Yuri grinned and ran his fingers through his wild hair. "They can just try to keep me alive with what they have though."

Silence.

"It's leukaemia."

Silence once more.

"Basically, the things in my body that fight diseases are messed," Yuri explained bluntly.

Makoto gazed impassively, not sure what he could respond with. "I don't understand."

"I don't suppose you would!" He laughed, only stopping as a cough bowled from his chest.

"Get back in your bed, Yuri-kun."

"Oh. Sorry," he said sheepishly, suppressing his groan. Yuri shuffled back to his bed and the nurse served him his breakfast.

"How are you feeling?"

"I feel okay," Makoto said as the nurse put down a tray of food in front of him too. After further questions, he could finally eat, not knowing how to use chopsticks.

"Why aren't you eating?" Suppose that Yuri couldn't hear any signs.

"I can't."

Silence.

"Chopsticks."

"Oh. No-one taught you?" he asked. Yuri walked over to Makoto's bed once more, having finished his meal.

"Never used them."

"Have you eaten before?"

He raised an eyebrow. "No?"

"Huh. Are you immortal or something?" Yuri joked.

"Yes."

"Oh." Yuri stifled his laughter. "I was just joking, but okay."

"I can't really lie," Makoto shrugged, staring down the offending sticks. Yuri stood by him and picked up the chopsticks, breaking them apart.

"Want to learn to use them yourself, or do I have to feed you here?" He chuckled. Deadpan for a response. "Yeah, I'ma feed ya."

"What?" Makoto frowned. Okay yes, he didn't know how to use chopsticks, but he couldn't have gone with the first of his suggestions? Moreover, he didn't need to eat.

"You heard me." Yuri picked apart the omelette with the chopsticks and held the piece in front of Makoto's mouth. He just smirked at Makoto's frustration, the grin only widening as he begrudgingly took it and ate. "Was that so hard?"

Makoto experimented with chewing, eventually getting the compulsion to swallow. "Maybe."

"Good. I'm helping you finish this." Yuri chuckled and repeated the process.

It took a painstaking twenty minutes for Makoto to finish eating, because Yuri had only decided to teach him how to use them after the seventh time. His expertise in using chopsticks was still shaky, but it was only twenty minutes.

"Good job," Yuri said. He looked quite pleased with himself.

Makoto rolled his eyes at him.

"Hey, where are you Yuri?"

"Hey dad." Yuri looked up and walked from the curtains. His father looked very similar to Yuri, if not for his shorter hair and fuller appearance.

"Hey to you too." Hibiki ruffled Yuri's already messy hair.

"Uh, this is Makoto," Yuri introduced briefly and gestured to him.

Hibiki paused for a moment. "Nice to meet you," he greeted. That boy reminded him an awful lot of his senior, Minato. The eyes were coloured differently and his blue hair was much longer, however. Makoto just nodded in response.

"Makoto, this is my dad."

"I guessed."

"Cool."

Hibiki looked between the two boys before smiling. They seemed to get along. "Is it just Makoto?"

"I'm Makoto."

Hibiki looked confused.

"No last name," Yuri helpfully added. He sat down at the foot of Makoto's bed again, wondering why his father was so interested in this guy he met just then. His dad hesitated to ask his questions, afraid of invading Makoto's privacy. "Who're your parents then?" Yuri asked, seemingly catching what his father wanted to ask.

"Nyx is my mother. I don't have a father."

"Nyx?" Hibiki blinked.

"Yes."

He thought to himself. That meant Makoto was Nyx's son. It made him wonder how she could've possibly birthed Makoto on her own, but then again... it was Nyx. She'd done that before, hadn't she? "Why're you here then?"

"I want to get stronger," Makoto intoned.

"Stronger?"

"I'm still strong. But... I want to be stronger." All the while, he tried to keep his voice level.

Here, Hibiki decided not to question further. "Okay..."

"Hey, since you fell from the sky," Yuri wondered aloud, leading Hibiki to wonder what his son meant. "Where do you live?"

"With my mother."

Silence. Again.

"I don't know where the place is, or what it's called. My mother says that we live near a seal of some sort." Makoto shrugged. "There's a large door and a person called Minato is chained to it."

It didn't appear to have any meaning to Yuri, but seemed happy to know more about his temporary roommate anyways. On the other hand, Hibiki was busy looking astonished. "You look a lot like Minato-san," he mumbled.

"I'm not him though."

Hibiki was surprised further and paused before acknowledging, "You're right."

"I'd be afraid if that Minato guy was like _Makoto_!" Yuri struggled to keep his laughing to a minimum for fear of untimely coughs breaking his flow.

Makoto narrowed his eyes at him. "What... do you mean?"

"I mean, that if Minato cared about everyone else the way that you do, then nobody would've liked him." Yuri snickered, prompting a deadpan from his victim. "I'm only ending up liking you because you're funny to mess with."

Well, glad to be of entertainment, huh? Makoto just sighed.

"Now, now Yuri," Hibiki laughed nervously. "Anyways, did the doctors say that you were being released today?"

He stifled a sigh at his father's question. "Yeah. If the medication doesn't work again though, I'm gonna be back here," Yuri muttered.

"Okay. I was worried about leaving you alone again, but it looks like you have company anyways." Hibiki smiled at that. Yuri was usually on his own in the hospital while he rested, aside from the professionals going in and out of his room.

"Yup!" He grinned at that.

Makoto had no reaction that he would outwardly identify. The prospect of being stuck with this Yuri person was evoked feelings of frustration.

"How long are you going to be in here?" Hibiki asked.

"I don't know. I feel alright though."

Again, confusion. "Wait, didn't Yuri say that you fell from the sky?"

"How far?"

Makoto thought. He didn't have a sense of measurement. "I went through a lot of clouds."

"That's... pretty high." Hibiki paled at the thought. "How aren't you dead?"

"I can't die."

"He said he was immortal?" Yuri supplied.

"I'm a god."

Oh. Hibiki listened and managed to rationalise Makoto's words before making an unsightly outburst.

"Cool."

"That... actually makes a lot of sense, so I'll believe you," Hibiki nodded. "Anyways, I better get going. It was nice meeting you, Makoto-kun."

Nod.

"I'll see you later, Yuri." After ruffling his kid's hair again, he left the room.

"See ya dad." With that, Hibiki's footsteps began to fade.

The two boys looked at each other. "So, what do you do for fun?"

"Music."

A glint appeared in Yuri's eyes. "Music, you say?"

Silence. He just grinned as Makoto looked on impassively. "I like making music." At this point, that neutral expression of his creased into that of curiosity.

"Hm..." Yuri thought for a moment. "Oh yeah!

"Earning one cent per hour... Encourage: bow down and cower... Looking while your fates turn so sour… Subservient cry out but they have no power.

"I'll indulge your anger, until only bloodless guts remain. Always working overtime, rest assured; there is no pay... Leave a rust-ful stain on you."

Makoto furrowed his brow. "Cue guitar riff, then go to a second verse." Yuri smiled. "What do you think?"

"Violent."

"I agree." His smile only widened.

"I like it."

"You think so?"

Nod.

"Thanks. I haven't had a chance to really work it out since I've been stuck in the hospital, but yeah..." Yuri seemed to smile even more at the prospect of getting out. "Maybe I'll show you a finished song some time, hey?"

Makoto blinked. "Okay?"

"Awesome." Certainly, Makoto observed an increase in enthusiasm. He thought that Yuri must've been extremely passionate about making music. To say that it was fortunate their interests coincided was an understatement.

Eventually, Yuri was hustled back into his bed and the two talked through the curtains in between interviews and scans. The two of them were free to go in the evening.

Hibiki and his wife came by later to pick Yuri up, having a small talk with the doctor before he was allowed to change into regular clothes. "What about Makoto?" Yuri asked.

"Well, he's healthy enough to go. But he apparently doesn't have a registered guardian, so we can't let him."

He was promptly reminded that Makoto's only parent was a god stuck in a realm who knew where. "And if I wanted to take custody?"

Makoto didn't really understand, but Yuri seemed to be pretty happy about it anyways. "So uh, if this goes through, we're gonna be stuck dealing with each other for a _really_ long time," he explained.

The boy wasn't sure whether to recoil or share his happiness. "Okay...?"

After a long series of events which the narrator cannot detail for the life of her, Makoto ended up in the care of Hibiki Yamato with the company of Yuri. At a pretty high point, things could only spiral down from there.

* * *

**AN: This follows on from the original Days of Darkness. Enjoy.**


	2. Stop Swearing - Edited

This situation felt oddly familiar.

"Hibiki, why in hell would you think it's a good idea to just randomly adopt some seventeen year old kid from god knows where he came from and then bring him here?"

He flinched under her stare as Yuri dragged Makoto to the lounge. Or he could be imagining things. "Uh, because..." Hibiki rubbed the back of his head. "He doesn't have any parents here and he wouldn't get out of the hospital otherwise?"

Minako shook her head. Sometimes she thought Hibiki was thoughtlessly nice. "Anyways, what's the kid's name?"

"Oh, his name's Makoto. He doesn't have a last name—" She narrowed her eyes. "B-But, uh, we had him change it to Makoto Arisato," he added quickly.

"Nice. So... who is this kid again? Had to be pretty special," Minako asked as she folded her arms.

"You know um... that guy called Kanzaki? My friend, Minato Arisato... and uh Nyx. If you remember them... I don't really know how else I can explain that, but—"

"That makes a lot of sense actually. Alright, alright..." She nodded. "I'll settle the kid in. Don't do anything as stupid as this again, jackass. I dunno if we can adopt a third kid." Minako smirked as Hibiki narrowed his eyes at her. Oh god, he knew what she meant.

"Yeah, I won't," he agreed. "I'm gonna go tell the other three that just happened though." Hibiki soon left for their room.

"Fine with me." Minako looked behind her, frowning as she found no sign of the two boys. "Yuri! Where the hell did you take that kid!?" she shouted.

"Coming!" Yuri yelled. Makoto trailed behind him with an impassive expression. "What do you need him for?"

"Makoto, I'm Minako. Don't wake me up in the morning unless you have food and we should get along just fine." He blinked at her as Yuri snickered in the background. "And Yuri, what were you showing him?"

"I just showed him the lounge," Yuri replied.

"Okay. Let's go then." She swept the two boys along with her, leading them to the kitchen, dining area... and the garage.

"Yuri, don't you dare start playing now." He peered anxiously around the garage, which held a variety of musical equipment and a large, unoccupied space. "Yuri."

"Sorry mum." Yuri smiled sheepishly.

"Damn straight." Minako turned towards Makoto. "Yuri's usually practising on his guitar around here. He gets jumpy when you disturb him so... don't."

"True enough."

"Don't touch the keyboard."

"Okay."

"Upstairs are the rooms where everyone sleeps so we better show you around there too." Minako nodded to herself.

Makoto swore he'd never been able to get a word in. Not that he had anything to say or wanted to, but he was pretty sure he couldn't with Minako and Yuri in the same setting.

The three of them then headed up, hearing murmurs of Hibiki's conversation from one of the rooms. "That's my room with Hibiki, that's the bathroom and that's Yuri's room," Minako pointed out quickly. "And as for your room since you'll be staying here..." She tapped her foot, glancing about the corridor.

"We don't have a spare room like Kanashi's house, mum," Yuri pointed out.

"True enough."

"He can stay in my room though. I don't mind."

Minako raised an eyebrow at him before shrugging. "Well, if you're fine with it, I guess. But you two better not mess around or any of that... stuff," she warned and narrowed her gaze at Yuri.

"No problem."

She then turned to Makoto. "What about you? You okay staying with the kid?" He met her look and shrugged. "Straight answer with me, Makoto."

"It's fine," he mumbled.

Minako gave him a satisfied smile. "Good. Now I'm gonna find out what's happening with Hibiki. You better get some sleep soon." She gave a pointed look to Yuri in particular. "And don't go down to the... freaking garage, right?"

"You can swear, mum."

Makoto simply looked confused. What was 'swearing'?

"He looks confused. Let's leave it at that. Got it?"

"Alright."

With that, she turned heel and left the two to their devices.

Yuri turned towards Makoto. "Do you know what 'swearing' is? The way that I used it?"

"No."

"Basically, it's when you say a word that nobody likes saying because it has a meaning or sound that isn't really good," he said. "I don't really understand why it works like that but... yeah."

"People must be very sensitive."

"You're right. They are!" Yuri laughed. "Come on. I'll show you my room. I wonder whether dad's been dusting it." He beckoned Makoto over to his door, where a whiteboard hung. Drawn on it were stave lines; one for the treble, and the other for the bass. Notes were marked on it too, but Makoto didn't understand what it meant.

"Basically, that says 'i am out'," he said shortly before opening up his room.

Makoto decided Yuri would explain that later.

"It's not really much, but yeah..." It was plain, with flecks of blue scattered around the furniture.

"Blue."

"Yeah. It's my favourite colour." Yuri smiled a little before sitting on the carpet. "Come on." He patted the ground in front of him. Makoto raised an eyebrow before finally mirroring his actions. "So... why do you want to get stronger?"

...

"Four way calls. Fun..." Hibiki sighed to himself as the phone rang. "Just have to hope that they're all at home or something."

'Crackle' and soon three blue images appeared on the TV. "What's up?"

"Uh... this is important?" Yashiro rubbed the back of his head. "Yui, a bit later, okay…?" His voice was only just loud enough to hear.

"Hey guys, did you know that a drunk apparently showed up in my backyard?"

"None of us were told that. What is it, Hibiki?" Yashiro sighed at Kanashi.

"Let me guess... you have a daughter due in about nine months." The three of them could hear Kurow's rather audible snickering. Kanashi suppressed his laughter while Yashiro pinched the bridge of his nose. Sometimes he wondered why he was still friends with Kanashi and Kurow.

"N-No! This isn't the time, Kurow!" Hibiki slid further into his chair. "Apparently Nyx's kid showed up and well—"

"Nyx's kid? I didn't know you moved _that_ fast, Hibiki!"

Silence.

"Shut up."

"Okay, okay. I'll stop. But you're being serious that it's Nyx's kid? None of us have seen her for years."

"I don't think he would've called us otherwise," Yashiro said.

"How'd she do it though?" Kanashi wondered aloud.

...

Makoto looked at the ground while Yuri waited patiently for a response. "I don't think I want to tell anyone."

"Oh. Okay. Are you sure?" Yuri asked.

He met his gaze. "Yeah. I'd rather not." He sighed.

"...well alright. Then what's your family like?"

A smile went suppressed. "Nyx is my mother. She took care of me on her own," Makoto said. "She's strict sometimes, but..." He seemed unsure of how to explain, from the furrowed brow.

"She's still good to you, right?"

"Yeah, I guess so." Makoto threw his gaze to the ground once more. "She's also very strong. She beats me at almost everything I can do. But it makes sense, because she's one of the strongest people in the universe."

Yuri's eyes widened. "You're not even boasting."

"Death is very strong. I mean… even stars die sometime." Makoto nodded to himself. "That's why she's strong."

"I guess that makes sense. So, she took care of you on her own?"

"Yes. She also gave birth to me on her own. I don't know how, but she did."

"Wow. I didn't know anyone could do that."

"Me neither, but she can."

"That's pretty good." Yuri smiled slightly, looking mischievous as Makoto seemed to seal his lips once more. "Makoto... I really like being straight up with people."

He raised an eyebrow.

"I want to say that you're blunt and you don't like wasting time with pretty much... anything. You don't seem to like being put down either," Yuri commented.

The other looked at himself. Was he like that? "I kinda like it."

"Are those things supposed to be bad things?"

"No. They're just things." His smile grew wider. "I think you're an alright person. But other people might not like it. That's all."

"People are sensitive."

"...You're right." Yuri laughed. "You said that earlier."

"Can things that are true be stated too many times?"

He assumed a thinking pose, humming as he thought. "I'll have to get back to you on that one."

...

"I-I wouldn't know, Kanashi," Hibiki said weakly.

"Eh, I wouldn't expect you to. What's he like?"

"He's..." He didn't know Makoto for long. "I guess he's kinda blunt and he doesn't like talking that much," Hibiki finally got out.

"Guys, we're talking about what he's like and you haven't even given us a name!" Kurow laughed. Huh. Well... that wasn't a lie.

"Oh yeah. His name's Makoto," Hibiki said easily.

"Makoto... I wonder why he was named like that." Yashiro rubbed the back of his head.

"I doubt the guy would know. Or well... any of us." Kanashi shrugged and leaned back in his chair.

"Hibiki, aren't you done yet? How much _could_ you possibly say about this kid you just met who doesn't like talking to anybody?" Minako called as she walked into the room. "You hardly know anything about him."

"U-Uh Minako, I know. But..."

"But what?"

"Man, I love watching dragons getting slayed by demons..." Kurow snickered.

"Kurow, shut up or I will cave my fucking knee into your crotch the next time we meet."

"Ooh... Shut down!"

"Shut up Kanashi."

Yashiro just sighed. "Anyways, I gotta go. This was fun... I might visit later, just to see," he said flatly. "Have a good night, everyone." With that, his image disappeared from the screen.

"Party pooper as always." Kanashi nodded to himself. "Anyways, nice talking to you guys. Amaya wants me to go watch something with her so yeah... later." Blip.

Kurow opened his mouth to say something—

"Go to bed Kurow."

"Yes ma'am." Blip.

"So Hibiki, what are you doing now?" Minako's fiery smile widened. Gulp.

"Nothing at the moment." He struggled to keep his voice firm.

"Good." She ran her fingers through his locks. "Would you mind making some tea here?" Minako asked as her expression softened.

"Alright." Well, what he was expecting was averted for a few minutes. "I'll ask Yuri and Makoto if they want some too."

"That's a hella idea!"

Hibiki then left and asked the two boys before heading downstairs. He hummed as the water boiled, having each strainer in separate cups.

Minako always had a little milk. Earthy tones billowed through the liquid. Yuri had some honey mixed in, because he liked it sweet and it soothed his throat a little. Hibiki had his plain… but what to do about Makoto?

…

"Man… I dunno how to answer that question," Yuri admitted. "I'd never thought of something like that before."

"It's okay. What do you think I think?"

"What do I think about what you might think? I think you must like being truthful or summat."

"I don't like it. I can't tell lies because I'm a god." He raised an eyebrow. "I tried to lie when I messed up in front of my mother. But I couldn't and I ended up telling what I knew was true anyways."

"What were you lying about?"

"She was asking me whether I was scared of losing to her, when we were sparring." Makoto bored his gaze into the floor. "And... well, I was. I couldn't hide it," he forced through gritted teeth.

"Oh. I guess a lot of people would be afraid of losing..." Yuri nodded to himself.

"You're not going to laugh at me?"

"Why would I laugh at you? I only do it when I'm trying to tease you." He smiled slightly. "Anyways, I think... well, I think it's okay to be afraid of losing... or of dying... or anything else that would be failure."

"You think so?" Makoto inclined his head.

"I fail all the time. I hate losing." He nodded. "But... it just matters that you don't, or that you tried your best. That's just what I think, anyways."

"I'll take your word for it... I lost against her again. I haven't won against my mother once."

"Wait, what are you doing? Sparring? With what?" Yuri blinked.

"Swords."

"Swords?

"Swords."

"Alrighty. I wonder if you're better than my dad." He laughed.

"He can use a sword?"

"Yeah. He used to do kendo, which is basically sword fighting, but Japanese and with less blood," Yuri explained briefly. "Anyways, it's not important."

Makoto closed his eyes as he lowered his head. "I see." How many people were above him? How many people were below? He almost didn't want to imagine the tunnel of mirrors. You'd never see the end.

"Yuri... I want to be strong because I don't want anyone to look down on me for being weak."

"Why would anyone do that?"

"Because there are people stronger than me. I bet they might laugh at my mother for having such a weak child," Makoto murmured.

"They must be assholes."

"Maybe." He smiled slightly.

"You haven't had tea before, right?" Yuri asked, seemingly remembering how confused Makoto looked when his father asked whether they wanted tea or not.

"No."

He laughed. "Alrighty."

A knock on the door. "Hey Yuri." He jumped up and opened the door, grinning as two mugs were put in his grasp. "Be careful. They're kinda hot... the one in your left is yours."

"Thanks dad." Hibiki left at that and Yuri settled next to Makoto.

"It smells nice." There wasn't explaining the pleasant notes of sweetness and... forests. That's what it smelled like. If forests didn't smell like this, Makoto would've been surprised.

"I think so too." Yuri put one of the cups in front of Makoto, looking curiously as the other looked perplexed. "Don't drink it now. It might hurt your tongue because it's hot."

"Hm... I wasn't planning to."

"Just in case, right?"

"I guess."

Yuri looked up from the wafting steam. "Makoto..." He turned towards him. "Why'd you tell me that when you didn't want to tell me earlier?"

"I don't really know. I just feel like... I feel like I can trust you," he replied with a shrug. "With that kinda thinking, you're going to get into a lot of trouble." Yuri laughed to himself.

"You mean I shouldn't trust you?"

"I just mean that the people you meet won't trust you, and there are people that you shouldn't trust either. Otherwise..." He took a sip from his mug. "You get hurt. They'll do things you probably don't want... and they might make you feel unsafe, I guess."

"Unsafe?"

"...do you feel like anything's wrong?" Yuri asked.

"Not really." His tongue dipped into the hot liquid. "Is that feeling safe?"

"I guess yeah. And if you're unsafe... then you don't feel like this." He shrugged. "You look like a cat."

"No I don't." Lap.

"Yeah you do."

"Maybe."

A grin spread across Yuri's face. "You're messing with me."

"Maybe." Makoto did the same, but to a lesser extent. "This stuff is hot. I can't feel the end of my tongue very well. But uh… what is this taste?"

"I dunno." Yuri took Makoto's drink and sipped a little. "Hey. There's milk _and_ honey in it."

"Huh. I like it." Guzzle! He seemed not affected by the near boiling drink.

Yuri collapsed on the floor. From laughter. "You're fucking hilarious."

"Yuri!"

"Sorry mum!"

Makoto rubbed the back of his head. You know what? He could live with this.

* * *

**AN: Hey guys. I figure the short sentences work when it's being funny and dialogue. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Later.**


	3. Sincerity - Original

"Shiroe," a girl spoke, sitting down on the couch next to him with a can of Pepsi in hand. She had dark shoulder length hair, fair skin and hazel eyes. The girl was dressed in a white collar blouse, tartan skirt, knee-high socks and black flats. The addressed boy looked at her curiously. He had red eyes, short black hair, was lightly built, and tall. He wore a baseball cap with the brim to the back, a white long sleeve shirt, plaid red shirt, track pants and red runners. "I feel like something bang outta order is gonna happen."

"Like what, Amaya?" Shiroe asked.

"I dunno. Has to do with falling though," Amaya shrugged, putting her can down on the coffee table.

"If you say something like that, maybe it will happen," Shiroe chuckled, grabbing and taking a sip from the Pepsi can.

"Did you just steal my fucking Pepsi you little shit?" Amaya glared, standing up and grabbing Shiroe by the collar of his shirt roughly. He just laughed mischievously with a silly grin plastered on his mug.

"Maybe?" Shiroe chuckled, making Amaya's glare narrow. "I would like to point out that our lips are in very close proximity to each other."

And Amaya threw him over the cough onto the carpet floor. "How about now, bitch?" She folded her arms and looked coldly down at Shiroe.

"V-Very… very far away," Shiroe noted with a groan.

CRASH!

Silence

"…Well. Holy shit, someone just crashed through the ceiling into my house," Amaya blinked. "We should call an ambulance," she nodded to herself.

"N-No, wait!" the person who had fallen called. "I'm okay. It's just… s-splinters! I think!" At least by then, the two could tell it was a boy that had fallen. It was a little hard to see because of the wood and dust from plaster overhead.

Also. _Just_ splinters.

"A-Are you alright?" Shiroe asked, helping the boy up. "How did you even get up there?"

"Uh yes… nothing broken," the boy said with a relieved expression. "I literally fell out of the sky. I know you probably don't believe me, but that's the truth."

"I am compelled to believe you, but I don't know why. So, no ambulance?" she asked, putting her iPhone 31 in her pocket.

"Yeah, don't worry about it," the boy smiled. "So uh… where am I?"

"My house," Amaya answered. "You crash-landed in it."

The boy's eyes widened upon hearing that statement. "I'm broke! Don't charge me for property damage, please!" He clasped his hands together, as if in prayer.

"Nah. My dad destroys stuff all the time and he's loaded. Don't worry about it," Amaya shrugged. "What's your name kid?"

"I'm Makoto Arisato," he introduced. "Pleased to meet you, and sorry for the convenience!" Makoto bowed deeply.

"I'm Shiroe Tsukigata. This is Amaya Baru," Shiroe smiled, gesturing to her. "And really, don't worry about it."

"'sup?" she waved with a slight smile.

Makoto returned the smile with one of his own and waved. "Um, nothing much. I am in Iwatodai though, right?"

"Yeah. Are you lost?" Shiroe asked with a concerned tone.

"Well yes. It's my first time here," he replied. "My parents told me to find someone called Kanashi, and said he could help me, or something."

"Dude. That's my dad," Amaya said, giving Makoto a demanding glare.

"Who in blue hell called me?"

"Oh boy…" she facepalmed.

"What do you mean?" Makoto asked, tilting his head. Somehow, he could feel a looming presence from behind. "Oh. That's what you mean…" he mumbled.

"How did you get in here son?" Makoto heard the man say with a gruff voice.

Makoto whirled around on his heel, meeting the man's front. He wasn't much taller, but damn if his presence was stifling. It was like he burned up the oxygen from the atmosphere when he was in this stern mood. He had messy black hair, lightly tanned skin, brown eyes and a goatee. The man wore a business suit with a badge on his lapel, telling Makoto that he was probably someone important. "I-I… uh, fell through the ceiling," he replied meekly.

"Oh. I'll fix that later," he shrugged. "Amaya, what'd you call me for?"

"He says that his parents," she pointed to Makoto, "told him to find someone named Kanashi. Which is your name, so…"

"The hell're your parents?" the newly known Kanashi asked, turning up his nose.

"Minato and Nyx," Makoto answered.

"Oh, the lovebirds… wait, what the fuck did you say?" Kanashi's eyes widened.

"Minato Arisato and Nyx," he answered for the second time.

Kanashi ran his fingers through his hair. "You're not shitting me?" He looked up and down, appearing be sizing Makoto up. "Well, you have the hair… and her eyes," Kanashi muttered.

"Nyx? Minato?" Shiroe wondered aloud.

"You better tell me what happened to those lovebirds son," Kanashi said, almost glaring at Makoto. Amaya was more surprised however. She hadn't seen such an emotional outburst from her dad since John Cena got his shit together.

"Well okay…" Makoto began. "It kinda went like…"

…

It started with a tiny, maybe not so tiny experiment. Not that either of the two regretted it. Minato was talking over some things with Nyx, mostly about how she was bored and that while watching the world going on like it was a good way to pass the time… well, one was able to get bored of the same stimulus several times over, right?

"I know what you mean, but what do you want to do about it?" he asked curiously, hovering around Nyx's back.

"Things," she shrugged.

Not going into details, Nyx somehow made the whole situation work with goddess powers and cheats of some kind.

"What're we naming him?" Minato asked. He had several names in mind for a boy. A real man needed a man's name after all. Except that thinking was cut off short. He had cool stuff like Arashi, Raiden, Ryuu and Takeo. Or storm, thunder god, dragon and warrior. Pretty much, proof that he was still young at heart.

"I want to name him Makoto," Nyx smiled a little.

Minato nearly blanched at the name. Makoto was a pretty common name, and it roughly translated in English to 'sincerity'. Which was very much unlike Minato's earlier thoughts. Not to mention, it was the name of his father, so he was wondering if that was where Nyx got the idea.

"Why do you want to name him Makoto?" he asked. Minato would never oppose Nyx's decision, but he was still curious.

"It reminds me of what I learned, I think," Nyx laughed. "Anyways, it's Makoto Arisato and you're not changing it."

Minato rubbed the back of his head. The name overall did have a pretty cool ring to it… "Alright, alright. Better raise him like his name, huh?"

Thus, with many shenanigans and years, Makoto Arisato was born.

He was quite exceptional for one very simple reason; he was a demi-god.

He possessed many of Nyx's original powers, and even had a less powerful Persona ability to Minato. Almighty blasts, Almighty shields and flying were no problem to him. He could control certain Persona up until the thirteenth Arcana and was fairly powerful.

Both Nyx and Minato taught him everything they knew about the human world as time went on. Things changed, their friends grew up and they had children of their own around the same time that Makoto was born.

"Never. Never. Watching Yashiro fuck ever again!" Minato decided quite loudly.

"Why were you even watching that in the first place!?" Nyx exclaimed, disbelief evident on her face.

Makoto looked at both of them curiously. He was still a baby at this time.

"Oh, don't worry about it Makoto. Your father is just exceedingly young at heart and immature," she sighed, shaking her head.

"I've never seen anyone be so dominant before, it's… uh… really scary!" Minato corrected himself, remembering that Makoto was very much in their presences.

According to Minato, his first sentence was, "Dad, why are you a pervert?" And then…

Silence

Nyx smacked Minato upside the head, rendering his spirit unconscious. "I swear he is not fit to be a father…" she muttered darkly.

Yes, Minato failed at being a dad, but he somehow had to learn. The responsibilities of probably a nearly forty-year old man were thrust upon him and well… okay, he failed for a good majority of the first years and Nyx had to teach Makoto the conventions of human society herself. One had to question how it was that a goddess could teach about such mundane things, but she did. Somehow.

For the first years, Nyx dealt with Makoto's curiosity and looked after him. It took a good four years, but by then Minato had managed to shape up and finally start acting like he was supposed to. Paternal instincts were not a thing, but he pushed on anyways!

"Anyways, uh… Makoto, I need to tell you something," Minato said, rubbing the back of his head.

"What is it?" Makoto asked, already grown used to Minato's immature antics or just his inexperience. As in, he'd lost so much faith in him as a father combined with his actions and Nyx's constant berating that he just decided not to call him 'dad' anymore.

"Uh… okay. I think I should tell you about bonds…" One of the only lessons Nyx will credit him with, but it was important.

Makoto was raised to be honest and considerate of others and overall, things were pretty well off.

Until he was seventeen. Was it just that year that everything just started to go to shit?

In any case, Makoto had grown very curious about how the human world was like, and wanted more than to experience it from a watch glass in the void somewhere.

"Oh really, you want to?" Minato laughed. "And do what? Meet up with all the kids?"

"I think it's a good opportunity though, if not dangerous," Nyx said. "Why not, Minato? He can probably get there on his own power anyways."

"Eh, probably…" Minato said, rubbing the back of his head. "I guess we'll just have to warn you to be careful and to keep tabs on you at all times. Except if you somehow fall in love with someone. Then I'm not going to make the same mistake I did seventeen years ago."

"Yeah, yeah. Don't go peeping on my non-existent love life," Makoto rolled his eyes.

Minato cringed. He certainly took after his mother in the snark department. "Yeah. Just be careful, Makoto."

"Will do," he nodded along. "I'll be off then, I think," Makoto smiled a little.

"And if anything goes wrong… then you can just run back over here and hopefully they'll be scared by me with presence alone," Nyx noted with a playful smile.

"Yes mum," Makoto replied, although it was more like… almost as if he was complaining about her worrying.

…

"You might not believe me, but that's the truth," Makoto finished.

"I didn't even know you could do that," Kanashi breathed out, trying to process the information. "Looks like they're still going well. And it's kinda good to know that the saviour of all humanity's still getting some. Somehow. And that he ain't lonely. Or that he's somehow still half-alive without a body was still able to come. And that Nyx is still a sassy bitch like always." Of course, he was referring to them in a friendly way. The say how far you can go insulting someone you know was a good indication of where your friendship level is at. "Got a cool ass kid that wears leather jackets too. Good on them."

Let it be known that Makoto had a bit of an obsession with leather items.

"Wait, dad. Who are Nyx and Minato?" Amaya asked, folding her arms.

"I know both of them back in high school. You remember Junpei, Yukari and all the rest?" Amaya and Shiroe both knew the group he was referring to well. They visited them every once in a while when they weren't off killing Shadow threats and the like. It wasn't exactly something that was easy to hide, and Kanashi had a strict policy of honest. When he wasn't trolling people, of course. "Well, they were with them. But Minato died to save all humanity, and Nyx, the goddess that would bring the end of the world went to stay with him at a place called the Great Seal so his spirit and her can spend all the rest of eternity together until humanity isn't a piece of shit."

"Sounds hectic," Shiroe nodded along. He wasn't even fazed, and maybe it could be attributed partly to the stoic demeanour he inherited from his father. Both Kanashi and his father had discussed otherworldly beings like Shadows already, so he wasn't overly surprised. Same went for Amaya. And if they didn't believe them, just pop another otherworldly thing into existence in response and threaten them with fire. Okay, the last part was a joke.

"So, you believe me?" Makoto asked.

"Yeah, I guess so. Would be nice with proof, but what the hell. You seem to be kinda trustworthy anyways. I'm inclined to believe you, but I dunno why," Kanashi shrugged.

"His name is very thematic," Shiroe pointed out.

"Oh yeah…" Amaya nodded sagely. "Anyways, back on subject, Makoto-san said that you would be able to help him."

"Oh. Me?" Kanashi blinked. "I am kinda loaded, but I dunno whether your mum will… oh fuck it, Makoto, you're getting one of the spare rooms."

"R-Really?" Makoto blinked. That was so easy.

"Yeah. I can't refuse a favour for an old chum," Kanashi grinned. "I'll just… deal with her later."

"Kanashi! You left the stove on!" a female called, walking into the lounge.

"Oh uh… sorry Hinata, I forgot," Kanashi said meekly, rubbing the back of his head.

"Don't worry, I turned it off. But can someone explain how that hole in the ceiling is getting fixed?" Hinata asked.

"Money!" Kanashi exclaimed. Well, he said he could deal with her later, but why not now? God, he was going to get beaten over the head with a frying pan, he could tell.

* * *

**Reposted: 30/01/17**

**AN: I'm reposting old chapters just to like... archive it for people who were actually wanting to see this be continued. Enjoy the short snippets. At the end, I'll briefly summarise what was supposed to happen in general terms, because at the time of writing this (and while I was originally writing it) I was just going with the flow. Thanks for reading and hope you enjoy.**


	4. A Different Kind of Animal - Original

p class="MsoNormal"Kanashi had been goofing around with the kids that afternoon while Hinata was going about some housework in the background. It was his brief respite from the court. Yes, that law enforcing court. He was a prosecutor. He'd always wanted to be one since he was a kid. That was why he always had to study extra hard in high school and during university./p  
p class="MsoNormal"He hadn't lost once yet./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Well, it was a big 'yet'. There was always the off chance he'd lose, but he usually only took cases that he knew the outcomes of. Primarily, he took on murder cases./p  
p class="MsoNormal"What does this have to do with anything? Nothing really. He's just being nostalgic and now you know some of what happened in this many years gap./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Spinning around in his computer chair, he pressed his phone to his ear, idly listening to the droll dial tones. Come on, you idiot. Pick up… Finally, he heard a small crack and the audio cleared up. "Why're you calling me at twelve in the morning?" he heard a cool, yet tired voice groan./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Because asshat, some divine kid just dropped into my house in the middle of the lounge and just happens to be the son of Nyx and Minato," Kanashi replied. While his words were harsh, the person on the other end knew very well that he was joking./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Is that so?" And yet, he didn't even sound fazed. "I better call up the others then. I think they need to hear this."/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Sounds good to me. If any of them are awake," Kanashi laughed./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Hm." A few beeps later and some dial tones, two others came to say hello. Or more like…/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Why're you still up Kanashi?"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""This better be good."/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Yashiro, why don't you tell them?" Kanashi chuckled. The addressed Yashiro, the one with the cool, collected demeanour, sighed./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Apparently Nyx and Minato have a kid… and he just dropped into Kanashi's house. Did I get that right?" Yashiro asked./p  
p class="MsoNormal""No way! Are you serious?" One man, with a slightly higher voice exclaimed./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Pics or it didn't happen," a gruff voice said./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Here, stingy little…" Kanashi trailed off his curses and sent a picture of Makoto, Shiroe and Amaya to the three of them. The story behind that picture was pretty interesting, but we'll get to that point later./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Whoa. Wow Kanashi. For once, not trolling us?" Yashiro seemed to be surprised, but it was all an act. Kanashi knew him for long enough to know./p  
p class="MsoNormal""He really does look like Minato… he has the same hair and everything. But his eyes look like Nyx's," the higher voice noted./p  
p class="MsoNormal""You know, I have every bit of happiness for you guys, and I'm cool with it too… but I need to deal with Muzumi. She's not even supposed to be up this late…" The man with the gruff voice said. A 'clunk' noise could be heard, and it was probably him putting his phone down onto a table or something of the sort./p  
p class="MsoNormal""He's got his hands full with the girl," Yashiro said amusedly. "So, we are meeting the guy, right?"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Bringing all the kids? Everyone we can get a hold of in SEES?" the higher voice asked./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Yeah, I guess so. But not today. I have to do some court reading over the next few days. Hopefully I'm fast as usual and can squeeze in some free time, but yanno," Kanashi said. The life of a lawyer was a busy one, after all!/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Yeah, we know. Well, we don't all have to go at the same time," Yashiro pointed out. "Me, Reiko and Shiroe are probably all free…"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Hah. Lovestruck brats," Kanashi teased./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Shut up Kanashi," Yashiro said coolly, hardly irritated by his poke. "What about you, Hibiki?"/p  
p class="MsoNormal"The man was finally identified! "Uh, I think Mayumi and I might be busy, but Yuri… he'll probably be around. As far as I know, all three of them are dragging each other around at school," Hibiki chuckled. He of course, referred to Shiroe, Amaya and Yuri./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Of course they are," Kanashi laughed./p  
p class="MsoNormal""I'm back," the last unidentified voice notified./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Oh hey Kurow. So, ever be interested in seeing what the guy is like?" Yashiro asked./p  
p class="MsoNormal""When I get time. You know. Muzumi's a handful sometimes," Kurow replied with a small sigh./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Sounds good. Well, I just wanted to call to tell you guys about that. When you get time, invite over the rest of SEES too," Kanashi said./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Will do," Hibiki said. "Well, I need to get some sleep. See you all later." 'Beep' and he was gone./p  
p class="MsoNormal""I need some sleep too…" Kurow yawned. "G'night pipsqueaks." Yet another 'beep' and Kurow hopped off the call./p  
p class="MsoNormal""I'm gonna get some sleep too… but I've been noticing something," Yashiro said slowly. He seemed apprehensive about something. A little nervous. "Something about Shiroe."/p  
p class="MsoNormal""What about him?" Kanashi asked./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Is it just me, or do your kid and mine seem closer than usual?" Yashiro asked. "I know, I'm not dense. I feel like something's going on." Yashiro seemed to be in thought. Kanashi could just see him looking all thoughtful in his armchair and whatever./p  
p class="MsoNormal""I'll talk to my girl about it," Kanashi reassured. "That it?" he asked./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Yeah. 'night." With that, Yashiro too left./p  
p class="MsoNormal""I should get some sleep too…" Kanashi mused aloud, putting down his phone and going to bed, where Hinata was sleeping./p  
p class="MsoNormal""What're you doing, up so late?" Hinata asked./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Heh. Just discussing some things about the new kid with the rest of the gang," Kanashi replied. "It's nothing, I swear. Just thought they'd be curious," he smiled a little, ruffling Hinata's hair./p  
p class="MsoNormal""G-Geez Kanashi," she complained. "It's your fault I'm waking up with a bedhead, you know that?"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Just joking," he replied, kissing her on the forehead. "Anyways, I have work tomorrow…"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""That's fine. The rest will be at school," Hinata said. "I'm sure you'll be tired out tomorrow. You better get some sleep and not get paralysed in the night by demons and whatnot."/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Nah, not with you here." With a bit of a grin, Kanashi finally leaned back into the bed and laid his head on the pillow, falling asleep almost immediately./p  
p class="MsoNormal"…/p  
p class="MsoNormal"Yashiro sighed to himself, sinking in his chair. Heavy stuff. He certainly wondered what Minato and Nyx's kid was doing there and what he was like, but he was just so bad at sleeping sometimes. He'd finished sending his article to his editor, and he was almost about to fall asleep at his laptop, right on top of the keys./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Yashiro… you should sleep on a bed…" A woman with dark, shoulder-length hair and scarlet eyes shuffled into the room, blanket draped around her since she was cold./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Oh yeah. I know," Yashiro chuckled a little. Reiko ever concerned for him when he was pushing himself too hard. She was never as tired as Yashiro, even though she had a similarly difficult job. Yashiro liked being a journalist, but it could take a lot out of him sometimes. "I'll… I'll go to sleep in a bit."/p  
p class="MsoNormal""No you won't," Reiko pointed out, hovering over him and pressing his shoulders with a firm grip. "You're stressed. You're going to fall asleep in your chair again. It's bad for your back."/p  
p class="MsoNormal""You know me too well," Yashiro laughed, feeling a few knots coming undone under Reiko's hands. Usually, he did that to her when she was working. Funny thing was that they worked in the same poses; sitting in a chair, hunched over some paper and a laptop. Thus, their shoulders were always filled with tension. So, he'd massage her shoulders when she was getting stressed./p  
p class="MsoNormal""I know. Come on. You're done, so come," she insisted./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Fine, fine," Yashiro laughed, getting dragged onto his feet. Knowing just what to do, he leaned into Reiko's shoulder. Frowning, she pulled him upright. He was being lazy, so she had to do it herself for the most part. "I'm coming," he said./p  
p class="MsoNormal""You don't look like it," Reiko replied shortly. With that, she grabbed his wrist and dragged him along./p  
p class="MsoNormal"In the background, Shiroe was watching the two of them push and pull at each other as they were going to bed. "Man, is it bad to think that they're cute when they do that?" he asked himself. Shiroe shook his head. "I should get some sleep too though… but school…" he groaned./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Go to sleep Shiroe!" Reiko called./p  
p class="MsoNormal"He froze up. "Yes, mum!" Shiroe chuckled nervously, closing his door and turning off the light./p  
p class="MsoNormal"The next morning, Shiroe walked to school. It was Gekkoukan High School, where it seemed nearly everyone in the family went to. Yashiro went, Kanashi went, Hibiki went… even Kurow went, and he was as bad as bad kids got while he was there./p  
p class="MsoNormal"'While he was there', only lasted for so long though. It was no secret that every one of them had changed since then …/p  
p class="MsoNormal"He saw Makoto and Amaya walked together, and they seemed to be talking about… well, actually, he couldn't tell until he caught up with them. "Hey guys," Shiroe greeted./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Hey Shiroe!" Amaya grinned. "We were just talking about how Makoto's dad is a terrible father."/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Certainly, not a joke," Makoto chuckled. "Hello Shiroe," he waved./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Mm. What're you doing here? I don't think even Kanashi can get some new kid in this quickly," Shiroe pointed out./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Oh. I'm just curious about the school… I'm gonna go back to uh… Kanashi, Amaya's house when you guys have to go," Makoto replied, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Well, maybe we could sneak him in somehow…" Amaya thought aloud. "If he really wants to see what it's like inside. But it's a school, so I dunno." If it wasn't obvious enough, while Amaya suggested this, Makoto was positively lighting up at the prospect of sneaking into the school./p  
p class="MsoNormal""I don't think that's going to work," Shiroe mumbled, pinching the bridge of his nose. He was just as quickly deflated by Shiroe's practicality./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Tossing ideas between the two of them, the three of them reached the gates to Gekkoukan. Their endeavours were quite fruitless, and Makoto did end up turning back, much to his dismay. Maybe someone could pull some strings and make him a transfer student. But of course, that would still take some time unless it was Ice Queen Kirijo herself processing the request. In which case, he'd be in so quickly like lightning through a metal pole./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Makoto ended up back with Hinata's company, remembering the path back to Kanashi's house very well. "Makoto-kun?" He tilted his head towards Hinata./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Yes?" he asked./p  
p class="MsoNormal""I'm going to go out for a bit. Would you like to come with me? Considering, you weren't able to go with Amaya," Hinata asked./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Ooh. Yes please," Makoto grinned./p  
p class="MsoNormal"The two of them headed out soon enough, although Makoto was always trailing behind Hinata. Also no, I've never described her. She had light brown hair that reached to the small of her back and bangs that nearly covered her blue eyes, and had fair skin. Even though it was only autumn and wasn't seriously cold, she wore a woollen jumper, scarf, fingerless gloves and beanie, all in varying shades of purple. To finish everything off, she wore dark blue jeans and brown boots./p  
p class="MsoNormal"All in all, it looked like she was dressed for winter. And ready in waiting for it to come back. Scratch that, say: Winter is coming. Great times are coming. Points for those who might know the reference. No, I'm not a fan of the series./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Where are we going?" Makoto asked curiously. While he wondered that, he was finding it amusing how much taller he was than Hinata. Everyone seemed to tower over her, even Amaya./p  
p class="MsoNormal""First, I'm going to Naganaki Shrine," Hinata answered./p  
p class="MsoNormal""What's at Naganaki Shrine?" He tilted his head slightly./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Hinata looked back with a small smile. "You'll see," she laughed a little./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Deciding to shrug it off for when they got to the place, he followed closely behind. It was only something of a fifteen minute walk to the shrine steps and the trip was soon over. Hinata didn't speak much after their short exchange, only saying, 'This is Naganaki Shrine' upon reaching the top of the stairs./p  
p class="MsoNormal"She gave him many moments for him to observe the shrine. On his left was a playground with a jungle gym, see-saw, swings… It was a little odd to see in a shrine area, but meh. On the right was a traditional-looking Japanese temple, complete with a bell and offertory box. There were two other shrine-like things on either side of the temple; one was a fortune slip stand and the other was the inari sushi shrine. No, it made no sense why there was such a special kind of sushi there./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Wow…" Makoto said, starting to walk further in./p  
p class="MsoNormal""You're so impressed by the shrine," Hinata noted. It was hard to tell what emotions were displayed in her eyes as they were covered up by her bangs. But her voice was rather flat./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Well, I haven't seen one for myself before," he pointed out. Hinata just chuckled a little and held two of her fingers to her mouth./p  
p class="MsoNormal"When she blew, a clear, sharp whistle sounded. Makoto wondered what the whistle was for, but the question was answered with:/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Arf arf!"/p  
p class="MsoNormal"A white and grey shiba-inu burst into the scene from the temple and landed in front of Hinata and Makoto. He was surprised. That little dog was so fast, he almost didn't notice it. Actually, it appeared as more of a blur. It was really that fast./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Hello," Hinata smiled, bending down to meet the dog. Makoto bent down as well, getting a good look at the shiba-inu. It had bright red eyes; not the pink albino kind, but stark crimson red. Its coat was grey and white, although there wasn't that much distinction between the colours. Strangely enough, it was wearing an orange hoodie with plastic angel wings attached to it near the shoulder blade area./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Makoto, this is Blazer," Hinata introduced./p  
p class="MsoNormal"The newly known Blazer let out a happy whine as Hinata patted its head. "Blazer, this is Makoto."/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Arf!" Blazer gave a bark in greeting, looking happy to meet a new person./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Wow… it's very cute," Makoto smiled. "Can I pat it?"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Of course," Hinata replied, allowing Makoto some room. He reached out his hand to pat where Hinata did, on its head./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Groof." Blazer's eyes glinted in the light and it walked over to Makoto's knees, placing a paw on each. It let out more happy whines and nuzzled near Makoto's neck./p  
p class="MsoNormal""That's new. Blazer's friendly, but I haven't seen her want to get that close to someone that quickly," Hinata blinked. "I wonder what that means…"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""I don't know," Makoto said slowly. Eventually Blazer retracted from his personal space and sat in front of the two. With a furrowed brow, he briefly touched where she had nuzzled. He wasn't used to it and wasn't certain he was comfortable with it. Oh well./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Blazer whined a little, wondering about Makoto's reaction. She seemed confused, and tilted her head. "Arf!"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""I think she likes you," Hinata laughed. "Anyways… we're going to take her for a walk." Upon uttering those words, Blazer's tail started wagging madly, almost like a helicopter blade or a fan. Or a windscreen wiper. There are many ways to describe a dog's tail./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Sounds good," Makoto said. "Are we going now?"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Groof!" Blazer shook her coat and darted over to the steps, waiting for the two of them./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Looks like we are," Hinata agreed. With that, the two of them set off./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Blazer walked ahead, seemingly knowing the route well herself. "So… I heard that you magically landed in my house?" Hinata asked, gazing at Makoto steadily./p  
p class="MsoNormal"He gulped. Surprisingly, she gave off quite the oppressive, cold kind of aura. "Yeah…"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""How exactly did you happen in that particular place?" she continued./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Well, I um… I don't exactly know. I uh… to be honest, I used a portal that connected these two places, and I ended up right in the sky. I tried to fly, but I wasn't used to it and I crash landed in your house instead, ma'am," Makoto said, every word of his sincere./p  
p class="MsoNormal""That's… I find that very unbelievable," Hinata frowned. "You're not kidding?"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""I can't lie, ma'am. My mum and dad said that it was bad to lie," Makoto replied./p  
p class="MsoNormal""What do you think Blazer?" Hinata asked after a few moments of trying to wrap her head around it./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Arf arf!" Blazer replied. It sounded almost like an affirmative./p  
p class="MsoNormal""That's interesting… I still find it hard to believe, however," Hinata sighed. "But then again, it seems like it's in the same strand of stories that Kanashi keeps telling Amaya about. He talks about these things called Shadows and mentioned these people called Nyx, Minato and Erebus, but I still don't know exactly who they are. That, and he actually said that he was targeted by an assassin group that tried to kill him all the time./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Not that Amaya really believes him," Hinata laughed. "She has that cynical side of mine…"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""My parents told me things like that too!" Makoto said, his eyes widening./p  
p class="MsoNormal""So… are you saying that Persona users are a real thing?" She raised an eyebrow./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Yes ma'am," he nodded./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Hm… well, alright. I'll go along with it for now," Hinata smiled a little. "You seem like a very honest person."/p  
p class="MsoNormal""T-Thank you?" Makoto rubbed the back of his head, a little unsure how to react./p  
p class="MsoNormal""You're welcome," she replied, unperturbed by Makoto's nervousness. Nothing ever seemed to faze her…/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Woof! Arf, arf, arf!" Blazer barked excitedly, seeing a familiar face. She ran towards him, and nuzzled his leg./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Oh. It's Ken," Hinata noted. The two of them walked forward. Makoto observed the man as they got closer. He was a tall, lightly built man with light skin, brown hair and same coloured eyes. He wore glasses, a black and orange hoodie, white t-shirt, khaki pants and black running shoes./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Blazer!" Ken smiled, bending down and beckoning her to his knees. Blazer seemed equally as happy as she jumped onto his knees and licked his face. "You're going on a walk already?"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Arf!" Blazer seemed to agree./p  
p class="MsoNormal""That's good. Hello, Hinata-san," Ken looked up, greeting her./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Good to see you too," Hinata nodded. "I'd like to introduce someone to you."/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Oh, really?" Ken stood up to full height. The comparison was staggering; he towered over Hinata, and had a quite a few centimetres over Makoto as well. He looked the newcomer up and down, his eyes widening. "You… you look… just like one of my old senpais…"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Minato?" Makoto asked, tilting his head. "But the eyes are different," he pointed out./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Does that mean you're Minato and Nyx's son?" Ken said, biting back a gasp. Makoto nodded. "I almost can't believe it…" He gulped, also preventing a frown from creasing his features./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Believe him dropping straight into Kanashi's house. I hope it doesn't rain," Hinata sighed. There would be so much cleaning up involved there, it wouldn't be funny./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Straight through the ceiling," Makoto added helpfully./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Whoa…" Ken blinked. "But… I think I've heard worse. Nice to meet you, Makoto. My name is Ken Amada," he greeted, bowing slightly. Ken breathed out, trying to process everything. He'd remembered how Minato practically died in front of all of them, and seeing Makoto so close in appearance made him a little apprehensive even through his happiness./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Makoto bowed as well. "Nice to meet you as well."/p  
p class="MsoNormal""But, if you're Minato and Nyx's son… that means we have to tell the others," Ken said./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Do you mean, the rest of that SEES group?" Hinata asked./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Mmhm. I'm sure they'll be happy to see this," Ken laughed a little, removing a phone from his pocket. "You guys should keep going though. Blazer's getting restless." Pointing that out, Blazer still seemed to be full of energy./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Alright. We'll see you later Ken," Hinata said. The three continued on their walk./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Meanwhile, Ken was dialling many numbers at once. He moved from the middle of the sidewalk and leaned against the wall. "Come on…" Eventually, the many dial tones ended, and the group was finally all on./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Ken? What's up?" The person Ken knew as Akihiko asked./p  
p class="MsoNormal""You won't believe this! It's…" Ken had no idea how to finish his sentence. He was still bewildered by the whole concept./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Spit it out man!" Junpei complained./p  
p class="MsoNormal""What is it, Ken?" Mitsuru asked./p  
p class="MsoNormal""You actually called everyone in SEES… this must be important," Fuuka said./p  
p class="MsoNormal""I've got Aigis with me. What's going on? Let Ken answer," Yukari scolded. Junpei in particular. He let out an indignant 'hey!' at that./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Guys… Minato and Nyx have a kid," Ken finally managed to get out as Junpei and Yukari's little spat calmed down./p  
p class="MsoNormal""What!?"/p  
p class="MsoNormal" /p 


	5. Fresh Start Fever - Original

"Shiroe?"

"H-Huh?" He blinked, snapping out of his blank stare. "Oh… sorry Amaya," Shiroe sighed, rubbing the back of his head. "I was spacing out," he said lamely.

"I know you were. But you totally zoned out during class. Wassup?" she asked. "Come on, you know that I know something is wrong." Amaya folded her arms, tapping her foot. Shiroe took it as a sign that he shouldn't joke around with her. The last few times she'd done that, she'd grabbed him by the wrist and flipped him over her shoulder when he lied.

He took off his cap and ran his hands through his hair. Shiroe looked back at Amaya and rest his chin on top of folded arms on his table. "I'm still… not really sure how it is Makoto was able to 'transfer' in so quickly," he replied. It wasn't the whole story, of course.

Amaya could tell. "True enough. But you aren't saying everything. I've known you for that long," she said, rubbing her temple.

Shiroe's jaw locked up. And suddenly he didn't want to say anything. "I…" Gulp. Words. Not coming out mouth.

She shook her head. And now she knew she wasn't getting anything out of him. "Geez. Don't you remember that thing I said about not keeping secrets?" Amaya asked, sitting down and leaning on his desk.

"I know. I'm sorry," he apologised. He was so quiet, Amaya could barely hear him.

"Big lug…" Amaya rolled her eyes. "Makoto! Get over here!"

"Right here miss!" Makoto said frantically. Why were there so many scary people around him? Hinata scared him already, but Amaya was worse, if that was even possible!

"Geez, calm down!" Amaya blinked. She shook her head once more. "How's school so far?" she asked.

"It's alright. Sometimes, it's kind of boring though," Makoto admitted. No shame. Or maybe he was just too honest.

"I agree with you," Amaya sighed. "Help me drag this guy back to his house, will ya?"

"Yes miss," he replied, making a quick salute. Makoto proceeded to lift Shiroe up onto his feet. "Let's go, Shiroe!" Makoto said happily.

"Okay Makoto," Shiroe chuckled, able to support himself after first being lifted up. "Um, Amaya? Do you think Yuri skipped out on school today?"

"What do you think?" Amaya deadpanned.

Flinch. "N-No, you're right," Shiroe laughed nervously. "Let's take Makoto to meet him. He's probably at home then."

"Sounds good to me," Amaya replied. That is, before a jingle came from her phone. She opened it and found a text message from the devil himself.

Yuri had texted her with, 'wont be at school. doing stuff with band. Still doing, come tmrw'.

"Well. Okay, looks like we're not going to his house after all," Amaya decided as Shiroe looked over her phone and read upside down. "Let's go to your house, Shiroe."

"Oh, okay," he smiled slightly. "I'll show you the way."

The three of them talked over how Makoto was going to handle school and homework. Unfortunately, while it was easy to try and listen, it was difficult to retain information properly. Regrettably, he just knew that he was going to be asking Amaya for a lot of help until he got the hang of everything. Amaya wasn't against giving him help though. Her grades were pretty high up the scale. They had to be, if she wanted to become a lawyer like her dad. And if she wanted, she could still become a pianist like her mum.

Shiroe's house wasn't far from Amaya's. It was just a block away. Maybe it was just Yashiro actually being _lucky_ for once (he's pretty much never lucky, which is a little ironic because of his Arcana being Fortune) and managing to get a place close to Kanashi's earlier on in life. It was a decent apartment, and no-one complained. Fairly cheap too. "Mum, dad, I'm home," he called.

"Welcome back Shiroe," Yashiro and Reiko said in unison.

"…You did that thing again," Shiroe pointed out. As in, they were so in sync sometimes that they spoke at exactly the same times and with exactly the same words.

"I know. You don't need to remind me," his father replied, pinching the bridge of his nose. "For once, it's Amaya coming over instead of the other way around?" Yashiro asked, a small smile gracing his features.

"Well, we were going to show this guy to Yuri, but… apparently he's busy organising some stuff for his band so he told us not to come over today," Amaya replied.

"Oh. You're Makoto?" Reiko blinked, tilting her head.

"Um, yes ma'am," Makoto nodded.

"Awesome! Call me Reiko!" she grinned, bowing. "If you need stuff… talk to Yashiro. He doesn't have work at the moment! Unlike me," Reiko grumbled.

She was overwhelmingly energetic. Quite unlike Hinata to be honest. "Okay then," he blinked.

"Nice to meet you," Yashiro nodded. "And what she said. For once, I'm free. To play League," Yashiro chuckled to himself, fist pumping. And hey! He rhymed!

"You're still playing LoL?" Shiroe nearly blanched at that. Talking about maturity…

"Well yeah. This thing I read said: Men will forever be boys. They're never too old for toys," Yashiro replied simply.

"As you can see, they're even more chill than my parents," Amaya whispered to Makoto. He was very much inclined to agree.

"Anyways… guess we'll hang out here for a while?" Shiroe asked, walking to his room and dropping his bag off. "Um, just to warn you Makoto…"

"What is it?" Makoto asked, tilting his head.

"Well… mum and dad are like… super duper close. I mean, they're around each other a lot more often," Shiroe sighed. "They work at the same place…"

"What Shiroe is trying to say is that they're so close that he has suspicions he's gonna wake up one night, ask them for something, and find that they're in bed making another sibling," Amaya explained bluntly, tapping her foot. Shiroe looked at the ground, blushing at the thought. She just said that with a straight face too.

"Oh. Man…" Makoto rubbed the back of his head. "So, I guess I should try to hide a tent if that happens?" Again, just… no shame.

"Yeah, basically. Try not to get weirded out if they start kissing or something like that," Shiroe replied, rubbing the back of his head. "Anyways. What do you want to do?" he asked.

"No idea," Amaya declared.

"Well, I think we should um… well, Makoto doesn't know us or the sorta family circle very well," Shiroe pointed out. "Maybe we can talk about that?" he asked.

"Sounds good to me," Amaya said. "You better tell us more about your parents though."

"Okay," Makoto nodded.

"Well uh… anyways, I've heard from my father that they and another group of people used to fight these things called Shadows," Shiroe began. "Wait, this other group is still fighting, right?"

"Well, some of them. Some of them have you know. _Lives_," Amaya said. "My dad called them SEES, or the Shadow Operatives. But you know, I still can't believe most of what they're saying, even though I know he'd never lie to me."

"Ehe. Well, I know it's true," Makoto grinned.

"How so?" Amaya raised an eyebrow.

"Well… Minato, my dad… he was the leader of SEES," he explained. "But something happened and he ended up having to seal away a being called Erebus. But maybe I should start from the start?"

"Hell yeah," she grinned.

"So, apparently in 2009, Minato was the field leader of the group SEES, which was dedicated to vanquishing the Shadows and getting rid of this phenomena called the Dark Hour," Makoto began. "They did in the end, but that was only because my dad gave his life to stop the end of the world."

"I haven't heard this part before…" Shiroe mumbled.

Makoto shrugged. "Well, all that's really important is that Minato sealed away a being called Nyx. If he didn't, she would've brought the Fall, which is basically the apocalypse where every human is turned into a Shadow."

"Wait, you just said that your dad sealed Nyx away. And you're saying that Nyx is your mum?" Amaya blinked. "What's up with that?"

"Well, he did. But Minato didn't want to be in the seal, because he wanted to be with SEES and his friends," he laughed. "Obviously, he didn't learn his lesson… he struck a deal with Nyx so that he could come back to the real world. The deal was basically to show that humanity isn't really wishing for the end of the world and that she shouldn't bring the Fall."

"I guess it worked then… but this isn't the end of it, is it?" Shiroe surmised.

"Yeah. Since Nyx was off duty, her brother, Erebus, came after her. His main purpose was to cause the Fall… and if Nyx wasn't at the seal, he was going to go and chase after her," Makoto said grimly. "That's basically most of the conflict right there. Meanwhile, Minato was still trying to get his point through to Nyx…"

"They fell in love?" Amaya laughed. "That's rich."

"Yeah, somehow. So, now Nyx doesn't want to bring the Fall, but Erebus is still after her." He folded his arms. "The Fall actually did begin to happen again…"

"Whoa. The end of the world happened nearly _twice_?" she said incredulously.

"Better make that _thrice_!" Yashiro shouted.

"Oh wow. Japan is messed up." Amaya nodded to herself.

"I heard this theory that it's because of all the ley lines crossing over Japan that all this bad stuff and magic happens," Shiroe piped in.

"The hell did you read that from?" She deadpanned.

And Shiroe just shrugged. "Um… so, Minato invoked the use of the Universe Arcana, which is basically infinite power in a box, to seal away _Erebus_ instead. However, it was the same cost as before… the good thing was, Nyx went to stay with Minato's spirit after that, so he wouldn't be lonely," Makoto finished.

"That is one sick love story," Amaya blinked.

"I can't tell whether you're saying it's cool, or if it's bad…" Shiroe rubbed the back of his head.

"Take it as you will. Well… then you should know that Kanashi, Yashiro, Hibiki and Kurow, which make up the Shadow Hunters circle, were recruited around this time," Amaya said.

Makoto nodded. "But… they've all got their own jobs now?"

"Yup. Kanashi's a lawyer, Yashiro's a journalist… Hibiki's a vet and Kurow is a contractor," Amaya listed on her fingers. "Guess who had a kid first?"

"Yashiro?" Makoto asked.

"Oh yeah. Shiroe's the oldest," Amaya agreed. "Even though he doesn't act like it…"

"H-Hey, I don't know the exact reason why I'm shier than the both of them," he protested weakly.

"See the problem?" she asked.

"Well, kinda," Makoto replied. "How did that happen?"

"Well kids, it all started when Kanashi brought one of his pen pal friends over here for a holiday, seeing as he was loaded with cash at the time, and still is," Yashiro explained, sitting down on a chair near the conversation with a can of soda.

"Wait, really? Why haven't I heard about this?" Shiroe exclaimed.

"Because," Yashiro said, with a rather childish grin on his face. Nope, not sorry. "Anyways, he had told me about her before, but never actually met her? We were at a party, he invited pretty much everyone in SEES and the Shadow Hunters… and we gave her a big welcome."

"Wasn't there this thing where Kanashi said that she might have the potential?" Amaya pointed out.

"Well… yeah, but…" Yashiro rubbed the back of his head. "There wasn't really anything going on at the time, so we never said anything about it."

"More like you kept the thing from her because you were growing to fancy her and being the overprotective boyfriend you are, protested and said that there were enough members in the group…" Shiroe muttered.

Amaya and Yashiro's eyes widened. "I came here to have some fun and honestly I'm feeling so attacked right now…" he muttered.

"Shiroe! We were just talking about how shy you were! Bugger off!" Amaya scolded.

"S-Sorry… but it's true…" he mumbled.

"What he said. She got a job over here, just so happened to be the same place I was working at," Yashiro said, taking a sip of his can.

"Yet again, another case where Yashiro was actually _lucky_ for once," Reiko pointed out, striding over to the group and sitting on the armrest of the chair Yashiro was sitting in.

"Oh, you're done already?" he asked.

"Yup. No more procrastination for me this week," Reiko grinned.

"Haha. That's good," Yashiro smiled.

Shiroe cleared his throat. "What about Kanashi and Hinata?" he asked.

"Oh. Well, he actually met her during a case Hinata was involved in. Another day, another murder case, really," Yashiro explained. "After the case was over and the killer was caught, Hinata, who was the killer's girlfriend at the time, became good friends with Kanashi."

"Work relationship turned romantic," Reiko said determinedly.

"Hopeless romantic…" Yashiro mumbled, rubbing the back of his head. "It was more like they were the kind of friends that fought a lot. They never really agreed, but really, they were just starting to hate each other less and less, just looking for another excuse to fight. Honestly, you have no idea how fast that escalated. Now they've turned sappy and lovey-dovey."

"That… that's Mood Whiplash in a box. You were just talking about _murder_ and then you're telling me that they had _angry hate sex_ before they became _happy-go-lucky saps_?" Amaya exclaimed. "I am going to ask dad about this when I get home…"

"Then what about Hibiki and Kurow?" Shiroe asked.

"Hibiki kinda met Mayumi similar to Kanashi. Through work, that is," Reiko said. "He was taking care of her dog, since he'd gotten sprayed in the eyes by these stinky beetles that like citrus trees," she sighed. "They met a few times after that for uh… well, stuff like vaccinations and cleaning teeth and the thing just grew from there."

"How much does he owe the dog?" Amaya asked.

"A lot," Yashiro said simply. "And then Yuri happened…"

"He's a total rebel. He has his own band, and he plays lead guitar along with singing," Shiroe said. "I'm a bit jealous of him myself. But _I_ get to play rhythm guitar," he chuckled. "I just hate his mismatched boots…"

"I dunno what that means," Makoto said flatly.

"We're gonna visit him tomorrow, so don't worry about it. You'll get how it works then," Amaya shrugged. "Kurow?"

"Kurow never likes talking about it… he only met his girl Shiki… 11 years ago? Muzumi, his daughter, is only five years old," Yashiro said. "I think it had something to do with his old girl back in high school… But hey. You guys can find out for yourself the next time he visits."

"Oh god, I can only imagine Yuri will be _so happy_ to see him," Amaya said. And she wasn't being sarcastic either. "Yuri loves the guy."

"Well yeah. He even has that mismatched boots thing going for him…" Shiroe sighed.

"Is that pretty much it?" Makoto asked, tilting his head.

"Well, unless you want us to explain what happened to the Shadow Operatives? It's kind of a boring story…" Yashiro said, tipping the brim of his cap down. "I mean, I'm sure you could find out from many sources what the story behind all of it was."

…no, the fourth wall has no sanctity. What are you talking about?

"Oh okay. I guess I can find out later then," Makoto said. "Now… what to do?"

"Well, I'm curious, Makoto. Just how powerful are you exactly?" Yashiro asked.

"Powerful? He doesn't look that tough," Amaya teased.

"Um… well, I guess I'd say I'm pretty strong. I'm nothing compared to mum or dad though," Makoto laughed, rubbing the back of his head.

"Let me see," he grinned, standing up.

"Take this outside boys," Reiko said, starting to push Yashiro and Makoto out. Shiroe and Amaya looked in wonder, following them. Considering it was an apartment, they couldn't fight right there.

"Let's fight on the roof?" Makoto suggested.

"Sounds good," Yashiro agreed, cracking his neck.

The two of them went up, the bystanders following once more. Makoto and Yashiro separated, facing each other on opposite sides of the roof. "Let's go," Yashiro smiled a little, squeezing his knuckles tightly.

Makoto wordlessly materialised a long, silver blade with a black hilt in his grip. It was not a broadsword like his mother's. Rather, it was similar to the one-handed swords Minato used to wield. He slowly walked towards Yashiro, seemingly having no guard. No really. It just looked like he was walking with the sword in his hand.

"I've seen my dad do boxing… but he looks more intense," Shiroe mumbled.

"That isn't going to work on me," Yashiro grinned. He took a step- a slow one… and he was out of sight and around to Makoto's back. A sharp jab aimed for Makoto's shoulder made contact, almost leaving the area he hit in tatters. It seemed as if his fists were blessed by the wind, with how fast and cutting his left jab was.

Makoto blinked, but seemed not to let any pain show. It did hurt! "Okay…" he muttered. So Yashiro was super fast. Great.

"Whoa!" Amaya blinked. "How'd he move so fast!?"

"I haven't seen him move like that either…" Shiroe said.

Makoto's eyes flashed blue, and already he felt lighter on his feet. He probably had an Auto-Sukukaja on him, which was why he was so fast. "Sukukaja," he muttered under his breath. Without the speed boost, there would be no way to keep up with him; that much was clear.

"Sukukaja huh?" Yashiro grinned. He jumped back a little and threw jabs in one-two combinations. This time Makoto was ready and could dodge them. They still almost cut him though, as he couldn't evade the wind surrounding Yashiro's fists completely.

"His weakness… he doesn't have one…" Makoto realised quickly. It was as if he could see his attributes through his eyes. Minato always blocked every attack, and no-one got hurt. Nyx resisted every attack, but could devastate him in an instant. Yashiro, he was fast and attributed to Garu, Zio, and Physical skills; specifically Slash. He absorbed Fire, absorbed Wind and blocked Zio… and he resisted Physical. Great.

"What's wrong?" Yashiro asked, not stopping to back Makoto into a corner. "Show me your power."

"If you say so," Makoto complied. In the split second Yashiro withdrew his fist, he slashed with his sword, aiming for his abdominal area.

Yashiro only barely dodged and it ripped his shirt. "Lucky I don't really like this…" he muttered. "Panta Rhei!"

"Panta-what?" Amaya and Shiroe said in unison.

A spiralling tornado burst from the skies, aiming straight for Makoto. He closed his eyes and raised his arms in guard, although there was really no need. When the attack faded, he was completely unharmed. "I can switch Personas, like my dad," Makoto admitted.

"Well then… things just got a lot more interesting," Yashiro blinked. Makoto smiled a little and switched his Persona, the air around the rooftop becoming mind numbingly heavy.

"What the hell!?" Amaya blinked, feeling the pressure hit her. Shiroe flinched as cold shivers ran down his spine, and Reiko clenched her teeth to prevent any reaction from her. Yashiro recognised the aura Makoto was giving off. It was similar to when Minato gave off killing intent when he was angry. And only one Persona was capable of doing so.

Makoto sent a volley of black orbs at Yashiro, dark seals forming in the air where they were aimed. It was a Mudoon attack. Yashiro was prompted to dodge what he could, seeing as the effects of his Auto-Sukukaja skill was fading. What he couldn't, he batted back with his fists.

However, Makoto had anticipated that he'd dodge, and used Vorpal Blade while he was distracted. Yashiro could barely evade the damage this time, and numerous cuts appeared in his clothes and skin.

"Yashiro!" Reiko shouted, trying to affirm whether he was okay. She knew he was tough, but whatever just happened seemed to hurt him really badly, considering the attack that just came out of nowhere.

"How are they doing that? Tornadoes? Balls of googly dark energy? Spontaneously spawning cuts out of thin air?" Amaya exclaimed. "I saw something behind Makoto just then too! What the hell is all this!?"

Reiko seemed not inclined to fill in this information, still stunned by Yashiro's injuries. She was fine with blood, but she didn't like seeing people getting hurt; especially Yashiro. "Um… I think we'll find out after this," Shiroe mumbled.

He wasn't too harmed by the attack because of his resistance to Physical skills, but it still hurt. Tiny trickles of blood formed rivulets down his skin and some of it started to stain brightly against his white clothes. Yet Yashiro had to brush the pain off. Jolts of electricity streamed from his fingers in Makoto's direction, knowing that this time it wouldn't be so easy just to dodge lightning fast volts or change his Persona in time.

Makoto tried to step away from the Ziodyne, but electricity being electricity, was too fast and managed to latch onto his arm. The lightning coursed through his body with intense pain and heat. It was enough for Yashiro's distraction.

Taking the opportunity, Yashiro rushed at Makoto and threw a haymaker with his right fist into his face. Makoto was sent cascading to the ground, but Yashiro showed no mercy and summoned Vayu, his Persona. It used Brave Blade and sent a blade skimming through the air to Makoto's arm.

Just as the attack hit, the blade phased straight through Makoto's body. A white, translucent film covered the whole of his body, and even Makoto himself seemed a little translucent too. "I was hoping this wasn't it," Yashiro smiled slightly. "That's from Nyx, isn't it?"

"Y-Yeah," he replied. "It's called Moonless Gown. Minato told me about how the Nyx Avatar could use an ability that made it so no attack could harm it."

"Sounds OP," Yashiro mused aloud.

"I know," Makoto chuckled. "I can't attack though."

"Fair enough," he shrugged. Slight downside was good. "Why don't you just show off all of your power right now though?" Yashiro asked, getting a little impatient. He'd been impatient the whole time, but just did a good job at hiding it. His skills in poker had everything to do with it.

"Well, I could… but it's kinda anti-climactic," Makoto said weakly.

"Or you could just save it for another time. That's cool. I haven't gotten a good workout in a while because of my job," he shrugged once more.

"I beg to differ…" Shiroe muttered under his breath.

"Shiroe…!" Reiko scolded with a glare. It depended on what you meant by 'workout'.

"S-Sorry mum," he smiled sheepishly.

"Anyways, I need to get some new clothes," Yashiro grumbled, walking down the stairs through the door out. Silently healing himself with Diarahan, the kids finally piped up again.

"W-Wait, dad, what was with those powers you were using?" Shiroe asked, running after him.

"It's called Persona," Yashiro answered. "They're powers you have, a mask to the open world, something that protects you from things in the outside world… Persona gives you powers that no-one else has."

Shiroe and Amaya kept on asking questions to Yashiro while Reiko trailed behind. "U-Um… what's wrong?" Makoto asked quietly, seeing Reiko's concerned eyes.

"I'm just figuring this is why Yashiro didn't want me to get involved," she replied lowly. "You get hurt… and that probably isn't even all of it."

Makoto wasn't quite sure of what she was feeling about him, but something told him he shouldn't press any further. "I-I see…" he managed to get out.

After a while, the teens had to go home. Amaya and Makoto's walk was uneventful other than some discussion about his fight with Yashiro, and they got back to the house at about 8.

"Welcome back Amaya," Hinata greeted.

"Hi," she said flatly. "We had dinner at their place," Amaya explained, knowing just what her mum was going to ask next.

"Figured," Hinata replied just as flatly. "Don't go into your father's room. He's busy."

"Okay," Amaya replied, walking past. Makoto gulped and shuffled to the door of his room. Just as he was about to go in, he heard Amaya say, "She's like that all the time. Don't worry about it."

"I-It… I dunno… It makes me nervous," he mumbled,

She raised an eyebrow before giving a sigh. Makoto flinched as Amaya placed a hand on his shoulder. "You'll be fine. I'll help you, okay?" she reassured with a slight smile.

Makoto averted his eyes to the floor. "T-Thanks," he stammered. "I guess I'll… see you tomorrow?"

"Yup. Good night," Amaya nodded. With that, she turned heel and walked briskly to her room.

"Good night," he replied. After getting dressed for bed, brushing his teeth and the like, Makoto finally went to sleep.


	6. Golden - Original

"Well, Yuri said it would be okay to visit him today, so… you don't mind walking there this time?" Amaya asked, swinging her bag on her back.

"No, of course not," Makoto replied. "Um, do you guys know why he doesn't go to school that often?"

"Hm… Yuri doesn't like talking about it that much. He clams up more than I do on it, so…" Shiroe sighed, putting his hands behind his head. "We don't really know. His dad won't say anything about it either. His mother too."

"Yeah, it's a bit weird. But you'll see. He's a good guy," Amaya grinned. "Come on."

The walk to his house was filled with talking, mostly about what Yuri might have up his sleeve this time when they came in. "What do you mean by that?"

"He's really loud with his music," Amaya explained shortly.

"Yeah. The neighbours have honestly given up on trying quieting Yuri down…" Shiroe laughed.

"Whoa… That's intense…" Makoto blinked.

The house they stopped in front of was neither big, nor small. Honestly, nothing remarkable, but it had two stories, if that accounted for anything. There was a garage out front, where one could see a boy with messy brown hair playing on his guitar. He was wearing a black trench coat and t-shirt with the print of a dragon on it, khaki shorts, mismatched boots and sunglasses. If you really want to know what kind of sunglasses they are, I suggest you look up Bro Strider and see the magic. "Wassup?" he asked, looking at the three with a grin.

"Nothing much Yuri. This is Makoto, a new friend," Amaya explained, pushing him forward.

"Nice to meet you," he greeted with a bow.

"Good to see ya too," Yuri replied. "The name's Yuri. But you knew that already. You can just call me that. I don't mind." He slung his guitar over his shoulder. "I really dig that jacket you're wearing," Yuri commented.

"Oh. Thanks?" Makoto replied uncertainly. He referred to his leather jacket, of course.

"Yup. Welp guys… I'm working on a new song," Yuri said, indicating some messily made sheet music resting on top of his amplifier. "Amaya, you can try playing it and see what you think. I made some tabs for Shiroe too."

"Sounds good to me," she nodded, heading to the keyboard.

"Thanks," Shiroe smiled a little. He walked over to another electric guitar which was hanging on the wall and took it down, starting to read through the notes quickly. "Hey… I like it…" He mumbled, jumping around on the strings to a strong, steady beat.

"Hey Yuri, just come over here for this…" Amaya said, beckoning him over to look at a certain bar. "How in blue hell did you come up with this?" she asked incredulously.

"I can't tell whether you're impressed or horrified," Yuri said coolly.

"Oh, the feeling's mutual," Amaya replied. "Anyways, Yuri…" She pointed back to Makoto who was just looking around the garage curiously.

There was a drum kit, a keyboard along with several guitars (classical, acoustic and electric)… even a violin and a flute. They were set up neatly along the wall which led into the house. The part the three were standing on was wood, akin to that of a music stage, while the rest was space for the car to actually fit.

"Heh, I haven't forgotten. Be chill, hey?" Yuri said to Ama before he walked over with what seemed to be a signature, confident grin. "So, you haven't been here for long?" he asked.

"No, not really," Makoto nodded.

"That's cool. By the way, Kurow and his kid are coming over today too, so if another guy in mismatched boots and a little girl come in… well, you know who they are," Yuri explained. "In any case, this is my band… the Nameless Force."

"Nameless?" he blinked.

"Because he couldn't think of anything else," Amaya piped in.

"What Amaya said. I'm not all that creative on the naming front," Yuri chuckled.

"Whatcha doing pipsqueak?" a gruff voice called to them.

"Oh, hey Kurow," Yuri greeted, folding his arms. "Hey Muzumi," he said to a little girl, seemingly no older than 5. She had silver hair which reached to her back, fair skin… and strangely enough, heterochromia iridium in her eyes; her right was purple, and her left was gold. She wore a white dress, sandals, and a black headband with a bow in her hair.

She ran to him with a small smile and hugged his leg. "Hello Yuri-san," Muzumi said quietly. Yuri chuckled and scooped her up into his arms, while she wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Where's your dad pipsqueak?" Kurow asked.

"I dunno. I'll call him," Yuri said. "Cover your ears," he said to Muzumi, who obliged.

"DAD! GET THE FUCK DOWN HERE!"

A crash, clank and a clutter later, Hibiki appeared in the garage. "W-What is it?" he asked, rubbing the back of his head. "I think I hit my head on something…?"

"You can uncover your ears now," Yuri said. "Was I loud?" he asked.

"Very," Muzumi said bluntly.

"Sorry," he apologised. "Anyways… Muzumi, this is Makoto. He's a friend."

"H-hello," she greeted, giving a small wave to him.

"Hello," Makoto replied. "Nice to meet you."

"…Nice to meet you too," Muzumi smiled a little.

Yuri raised an eyebrow. "That's new. I haven't seen her warm up to someone that quickly," he commented.

"You're Makoto?" A puffed out Hibiki asked.

"Uh yeah…" he replied, unsure what to say.

"Cool. My name's Hibiki Yamato," he introduced. Hibiki bowed slightly, and Makoto did the same. "Makoto, this is Kurow. He's a friend of mine."

"'sup?" he asked, regarding Makoto with a nod of his head. "Kurow Miharu," he said briefly. "If you mess with my kid, I won't hold back…" A flash of gold in his eyes promised _pain_. And Megidolaons.

"Hibiki-san, may I have some hot chocolate?" Muzumi asked politely as Yuri put her down.

"Sure," Hibiki nodded, holding his hand out for her to hold. She took it and followed him into the house.

"Don't let her have too much…" Kurow muttered to Hibiki.

"Yeah, I know," he laughed.

"Anyways… now that she's gone… I hear you're the fuckwit that wanted to try and kick Yashiro's ass," Kurow grinned, breaking his polite act and going back to his gruffer demeanour. "Wanna tell me what else you can do so I can have a one up on ya when I try and do what you tried to do to Yashiro?"

"N-No?" Makoto answered uncertainly.

He raised an eyebrow and folded his arms. If he was the same person as before, he would've just burst into laughter and said some degrading insult. "Smart kid," Kurow nodded. Whether it was sarcastic or not remained to be seen, but everyone decided to leave it at that.

Everyone hung out at Hibiki's house for a while, catching up on some things, playing with Muzumi and discussing music with Yuri, Amaya and Shiroe.

…

"So he can change Persona like Minato, use a sword, use Moonless Gown… and that probably isn't it?" Kurow exclaimed.

"Yeah. I still wonder what's up with him to be honest… I've noticed Reiko's a bit nervous around him though," Yashiro noted, rubbing the back of his head. "I'm not exactly sure why…"

"You should ask later," Hibiki pointed out. "But… hm, I wonder what else he can do. It kinda makes me feel bad that we're talking about him like this though," he said sheepishly.

"I don't blame you," Kanashi agreed. "Also, damn if it took me a while to get in touch with Mitsuru. She's so busy all the damn time, it's almost annoying," he groaned. "Sorry, just needed to get that off my chest."

"No, I agree. The girl's been running herself ragged," Kurow sighed.

"At least there aren't really any Shadows running around," Yashiro pointed out.

"Dude. With your luck, and you saying that, it's going to happen. You fuckwit," Kanashi narrowed his eyes, despite the fact that he was calling everyone and no-one was with him.

"…right, thanks. Well, I gotta go to bed. See ya," Yashiro said. With that, his phone beeped off.

"I wonder what he means by 'go to bed'?" Kurow asked, every suggestive tone seeping into his voice.

"Shut up ya damned crow," Kanashi laughed, wiping a tear away. "Anyways, I better get some sleep. See ya guys later!" His phone did the same.

"Ha. Ha." Kurow's laugh was definitely the sarcastic kind. "Well, good night pipsqueak," he said.

"G'night Kurow," he replied, deciding to go to sleep as well. Hibiki turned off his phone and began to walk to his ro—

"Feel the electricity mothercanuckers!"

Okay. Not to his room apparently. Hibiki instead headed towards the garage. "Yuri, shouldn't you be asleep?" he asked with a concerned look, standing in the doorway.

A brunette with messy, wind-blown hair, blue eyes also dressed in a black shirt and trench coat, khaki shorts, mismatched boots and sunglasses turned to face his father with a grin. "Sorry dad. I'm almost done," he reasoned.

"Well, I don't mind Yuri. But be careful not to push yourself," Hibiki laughed. "Your mother's asleep, the neighbours might not like it… and we don't have soundproofing yet," he explained, relaying to him things that Yuri had heard not only the night before, but many days in a couple of years too, back when he was still starting to make music.

"I know dad," Yuri sighed. "Can you just let me work out this solo? Please?" he asked, putting his hands together, as if in prayer.

"Well, if you don't mind me watching!" Hibiki laughed once more, sitting down on the doorstep to the garage.

Yuri just grinned and slung his guitar over his shoulder, beginning to play. He stopped and started a few times, but eventually went dancing through the melody and chords on the strings as he found the next best fitting note. It was a metal solo at heart, but it was slow and sounded almost sad. It was akin to those Metallica and Iron Maiden solos in 'Fade to Black' and 'Strange World'.

Overall, Hibiki liked the tune as he pondered the meaning. The thing was that he hadn't heard the rest of the song to make a judgement. "It sounds really good!" he praised as Yuri finished the solo.

"Thanks dad," Yuri replied with a smile, putting down his guitar with a relieved face. The weight leaving his shoulders, he knelt, feeling a wave of fatigue wash over him.

"A-Are you alright?" Hibiki asked, rushing over to Yuri's side.

"Yeah. I'm fine," he replied with a raspy voice, seemingly having trouble breathing.

"Please, be careful…" Hibiki mumbled as he rubbed Yuri's back. "Are you okay to go to school tomorrow?" he asked.

"Y-Yeah. I can do this. I just need some rest…" Yuri said, clenching his teeth.

"Alright. Just tell me if you need to go home, or anything," Hibiki said. "I know it might feel like I'm babying you, but I'm just worried."

"I know dad," Yuri smiled, giving Hibiki a hug.

Hibiki returned the hug gratefully and stood up, carrying his son on his shoulder as carefully as he could. "Come on. You need to get some sleep. It's almost twelve," he scolded.

"You say that… but you're awake too," Yuri said, his smile only widening.

His father gave a chuckle and muttered a 'quiet you!' as he walked up with him.

…

Kurow sighed as he headed back towards his room, where his wife, Shiki was sleeping. He sat on the edge of the bed, running his fingers through his hair.

If he had to be truthful, he'd say that he only met Shiki at first because she had the likeness of Hikari. Shiki had the same soft brown locks as her, same tone of skin… the way the angels had painted on her delicate features, her cute nose, pouted pink lips, the gentle slope of her cheekbones… the only thing that was different were her eyes, which were a vibrant shade of violet.

And her personality. God, her personality. Hikari was the cute kind, stern and concerned sometimes, soft like a teddy bear the others. She could be a little unpredictable, but at the very least, she was never boring. He really liked and admired that vitality she had, even if she wasn't really happy all the time.

On the other hand, there was Shiki. She was sharp, and always paid attention to even the smallest of details. In that respect, one might've said she was more rigid than Hikari. And yet… well, Shiki was kind to a fault. She never complained, and always seemed to be understanding of another's plight. She gave when she couldn't really give anymore, and loved even when others said she shouldn't.

Kurow never let himself forget about Hikari. In fact, he thought about her all the time. His memories of her haunted his mind: the ones where he'd hold her in his arms; when she gave her those stupid teddy bears to tease him; and when she gave him her mother's earrings. Things like that flashed in and out of his vision. It was the morning dew that hung on the grass. It stayed for a while, left later, only to come back the next day. They were the addicting kind that you could never look away from, and loved looking at. Even though it would be better to stop.

Shiki intensified the need for him to hang onto everything that he knew. But she was also different. In fact, she did know about how Kurow was always reminded of someone else. He never said who the person was to her.

Most could simply turn away from his troubles, but she couldn't. Maybe it was something that came from her personality, not that it mattered. Whether he knew it or not, it was similar to how Hikari never separated from him. Both knew about what he could hide, or at least shut the mouth of, to make sure they couldn't worry about him. Shiki wouldn't be Hikari, but she could care about him.

After knowing him for so long, she knew that under his gruff, aggravating, teasing personality that he put on for everyone, he was actually the kind of person that would do whatever it took for the ones he cared about to be safe. Maybe it was because of his defiance to his father, or some other reason. Muzumi was the prime example of that.

Shiki knew how protective he could be of her; a lion that protected his own, and was overbearing and caring until it hurt even him.

He could easily take a bullet for Muzumi if he knew she would live after.

Anything was nothing.


	7. I Can Tell - Original

p class="MsoNormal"A man with black hair, lightly tanned skin, blue eyes and highlights clad in a black suit, pants and shoes, white collar shirt and blue bandana around his neck was called. "Hey, Kiru," Kanashi said, beckoning him over./p  
p class="MsoNormal""What's up?" Kiru asked./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Well, me and my buddies are planning to go out drinking after the case I'm working on is done. Feel like coming along?" he asked, removing his feet off his desk. Yes, he put his feet on his desk. Rather regularly./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Kiru thought it over for a few moments. At least, he certainly didn't have a reason for not coming. He was free the next few days, so long as his girlfriend wasn't taking him out on dates. "What time?" he asked./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Say about… 7:30?" Kanashi replied, spinning in his chair./p  
p class="MsoNormal""I guess I can make it. But hey, it's usually me offering, not you," Kiru pointed out./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Just feel like doing something bang outta order." All the while, Kanashi had a grin on. When he said that, Kiru immediately started to regret his decision. However, he couldn't back out now./p  
p class="MsoNormal""…I'm guessing your case is going to be over soon, if you saying that," Kiru presumed. "This is going to be at Escapade?"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Well, of course! I ain't hanging out at that damned boulevard if I can help it, and the Port Island Station bar's kinda dingy for my tastes," Kanashi reasoned. There wasn't any arguing, it seemed./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Alright then. I gotta get going. Mikuru calls," Kiru chuckled./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Have fun man," Kanashi said, seeing his friend off./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Kiru Masuda was a kohai of his at the prosecution offices for the district he worked in. Kanashi always said that Kiru wasn't very suited to be a lawyer; Kiru loved working, tinkering and messing around with various machines and gadgets. It was his hobby he loved more than anything else. The guy wasn't all that assertive. Nice, yes. Walked over? Hella yes. At the very least, Kiru agreed with Kanashi. He only worked there because when he got a case down, the cash came rolling in quickly. If not for that, Kanashi wouldn't have met him. He was a few years younger than Kanashi, which was why Mikuru was his girlfriend; not a wife. Yet./p  
p class="MsoNormal"In any case (haha), Kanashi got home moderately late. Say about 10. Amaya and Makoto were relaxing in the lounge and playing some video games. "I'm home," he called./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Welcome back Kanashi," Makoto greeted. "Amaya would say something, but she's busy killing Clotho," he explained, pointing at the screen where Kratos was stabbing into an ugly, blue-skinned worm woman with lard for fat. Or at least, it appeared./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Ooh, God of War 2. Outdated now, but still so good," he said with a pleased smile. "Uh, probably tomorrow, I'm gonna be out with Yashiro and everyone else. Just in advance," Kanashi relayed./p  
p class="MsoNormal""I'll tell mum later. She's taking a nap!" Amaya replied./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Sounds good," he nodded./p  
p class="MsoNormal""But why don't you want to tell Hinata yourself?" Makoto asked curiously./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Kanashi walked over and sat on the couch in front of the TV. "Because, if I tell her, I'm gonna get a hangover even embefore/em I get drunk," he sighed./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Oh. That doesn't sound very nice," Makoto mumbled./p  
p class="MsoNormal""I'm glad you agree!" Kanashi said proudly, turning his nose up./p  
p class="MsoNormal"…/p  
p class="MsoNormal"Makoto went to sleep a little later that night, encountering a peculiar dream./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Welcome… to the Velvet Ro—Ow!" The part about the place being velvet was a lie. Most of what Makoto could see was darkness and a whole load of black./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Please. This isn't the time to joke around," Nyx sighed, withdrawing her open palm into folded arms./p  
p class="MsoNormal""…sorry. Hey Makoto," Minato waved slightly. "We've summoned you here in your dreams," he said, trying to imitate Igor's mysterious tone of voice. And failing./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Um… right. I can see that," Makoto sighed. Minato flinched. That sounded way too much like Nyx. "What is it?/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Well, for one, we've just been watching you guys. They seem to be a better bunch than I remember them to be," Minato said, clearing his throat. "That… that isn't really what we came here to talk about though."/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Makoto… can you come closer?" Nyx asked./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Wondering what she meant by that, he walked a little closer to the two of them. "What now?" Makoto asked./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Minato bit his lip. "We have some trouble on our hands…"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Like what?" Makoto asked once more./p  
p class="MsoNormal""We're not exactly sure…" Nyx admitted. She wrapped her arms around Makoto, pulling him into a hug. "But… you need to stay safe. Whatever this thing is… I don't want it to hurt you."/p  
p class="MsoNormal""You see, we were going to try and portal you back, but we're guessing that you don't want to go," Minato said, rubbing the back of his head. "But we're going to ask anyways, so…"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""I guess you do know me that well," Makoto replied, still surprised by his mother's actions. She was kind and stern… but Nyx was never one to give affection./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Thought so," Minato sighed as Nyx let go of Makoto. "Then… you have to stay safe, okay?" he asked softly, looking at where the ground would've been. But there wasn't some kind of reassurance. Just nothingness./p  
p class="MsoNormal""I haven't heard you say something like that before," Makoto admitted, looking down as well./p  
p class="MsoNormal"If he was being honest with himself - which he always was - he was much more distant to his father than his mother. His lack of parenting skills had everything to do with the whole problem. It could sound comical from one side, but from another…/p  
p class="MsoNormal"Well, if one put it this way…/p  
p class="MsoNormal"How would you feel if your own son couldn't even trust you with anything because you were terrible at what you were supposed to do?/p  
p class="MsoNormal"It could be a joke on the surface, but for Minato, it wasn't as if he liked feeling those pangs in the pit of his stomach, in his chest, every time. Mentally, he probably hadn't matured like Yashiro, Kanashi, Hibiki, Kurow… or any of the others either. Then what?/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Sorry. I only know how to be an immature seventeen year old," Minato sighed, turning his back. "I should know what to say, but…"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Minato…" Nyx sighed as well, furrowing her brow./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Well, better not get yourself killed out there, otherwise, she might," Minato joked, pointing his thumb to Nyx./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Why you-!?" Nyx's eyes widened, trying to formulate a coherent response. Hopefully one that jabbed at him./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Minato disappeared./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Makoto…" She sighed and looked into eyes that mirrored her own. "I know Minato isn't all that well with the parenting thing yet… but he does love you, even if he can't properly express it yet."/p  
p class="MsoNormal""I know mum," he replied. "But I haven't been all that nice to him either."/p  
p class="MsoNormal"Nyx softened her gaze. "You're so honest and blunt…" she said amusedly. "I wonder where you got it from… Minato lies a lot of the time, so it can't be from there."/p  
p class="MsoNormal""You're not going to say it's from your side?" Makoto asked./p  
p class="MsoNormal""No… in fact, why don't you find out? You said that you wanted to know what the human world is like, because watching something from afar sometimes isn't nearly as fulfilling as seeing it all in detail," Nyx said. "But… don't you have something other than that?"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Not that I know of… not yet," he answered. "And if I do really know, I don't recognise it yet."/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Why don't you find that out for me? I'd like to know what you find out," Nyx smiled./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Makoto smiled back shyly, especially when she rubbed his head. "Well, you better go on back to sleep. Sorry to keep you."/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Good night."/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Sweet dreams."/p  
p class="MsoNormal"…/p  
p class="MsoNormal"He preferred to keep a low profile at school, trying not to attract too much attention while he listened to the teachers. Makoto wasn't quite sure whether he was any happier than before he had that dream with his parents. But, he thought more./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Want to list the things he saw when he was actually paying attention?/p  
p class="MsoNormal"Amaya was part of the archery club. She was one of the best archers in the club, close in prowess to Yukari Takeba. He'd seen Yukari on TV, and heard about her a little from Kanashi./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Shiroe actually went to boxing club, but never went there regularly. He wasn't as good as his dad, after all. Instead, he found himself going to the art club more than once./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Yuri almost never went to school, but he always seemed to avoid contact with most of the teachers and was always playing air guitar when he thought no-one was watching. Surprisingly, he actually didn't hang out with Amaya and Shiroe that much. For what reason?/p  
p class="MsoNormal"Well, Makoto wasn't sure of that./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Something about the whole watching other people go about their daily business was getting boring. The exciting part was making up stories or reasons for their actions./p  
p class="MsoNormal"For example, Shiroe seemed to be jumpier around Makoto. If Makoto didn't know any better, he'd have thought it was because Makoto spent time with Amaya quite a bit. Considering how it seemed Shiroe had a crush on her…/p  
p class="MsoNormal"…oh right, Shiroe had a crush on Amaya. Forgot to mention that!/p  
p class="MsoNormal"You know when Shiroe was teasing her? Well, yes, it was for fun. On the other hand, he did it repeatedly when they were having conversations during lunch time. So if that tells you anything…/p  
p class="MsoNormal"Anyways, he'd figured that maybe he didn't like the idea of Makoto stealing his girl. You know, whenever he'd work up the courage to be able to say something like that to her./p  
p class="MsoNormal"So… "Hey, don't pull a Shiroe on me."/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Sorry Amaya," Makoto replied. He was starting to think that he was becoming more relaxed around her. She was easy to be that way around, actually. She was equally as chill with whatever the people around her were doing. Shiroe just always knew how to press her buttons./p  
p class="MsoNormal""You're thinking hard about something, aren't you?" So apparently he was wrong. Her skills at reading people wasn't exclusive to just Shiroe. Amaya was just really observant./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Yeah, I am," he nodded. It probably didn't help with how he always told the truth though…/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Wanna tell? Apparently if you tell someone about a secret, it lifts a burden off your shoulders," Amaya asked, sitting on the edge of his desk./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Um… well, I don't really want anyone to hear," Makoto said, rubbing the back of his head./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Fine with me," Amaya nodded. The two headed for the rooftop./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Shiroe walked past the two of them, and he had to hide a look of disbelief when he saw the both of them. How was it that Makoto was so close to her in such a short amount of time? Why? No… no, he was just thinking about it too much. Yeah… he was just thinking about it too much./p  
p class="MsoNormal"He shook his head, pushing past the crowd./p  
p class="MsoNormal"But he couldn't get the thought out of his mind./p  
p class="MsoNormal"For once, he headed to the boxing club's room, even though it wasn't on that day. Shiroe threw his bag to the ground and faced a sandbag./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Not starting with mercy, he threw a right straight, forcing out his anger, shyness, and just letting go. He couldn't pay attention to the condition of it, and threw all of his strength into it as many times as possible before he slid to the ground against the bottom of the sparring ring./p  
p class="MsoNormal"The bag was heavily damaged in one spot, where it almost looked like the sand was going to flow out of it. His knuckles were bruised, but the pain was slowly starting to fade. Almost abnormally fast. Where his nails dug into the palm of his hand, blood no longer seeped out./p  
p class="MsoNormal"He was overreacting. Probably./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Why was it that he was so shy? Was it even the problem? Was it something else?/p  
p class="MsoNormal"Shiroe was at least rational enough to believe that it wasn't really Makoto's fault. He never seemed any closer to Amaya than a friend. It was all him, wasn't it?/p  
p class="MsoNormal"Yuri peered into the window of the boxing club as he looked for an empty room to concentrate in. Honestly, he was starting to feel a bit dizzy, but he endured it as he found Shiroe sitting alone inside. And Shiroe didn't go often either. Of course he found it strange./p  
p class="MsoNormal"He slid the doors open and stood in front of Shiroe. "What's wrong?" Yuri asked. He averted his eyes to the sandbag near Shiroe, seeing how the colour of the bag had faded./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Sorry…" Shiroe apologised meekly, even though he really had nothing to apologise for./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Yeah, I'm not getting this outta you," Yuri decided, taking off his sunglasses and hooking it to his shirt. He grabbed Shiroe's wrist and pulled him as best as he could to his feet. "You know… the longer you hold something in, the worse it gets?"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Yeah…" Shiroe sighed./p  
p class="MsoNormal""You look like you need to tell someone about it," Yuri added. "Come on, tell me."/p  
p class="MsoNormal""I… A-Am I a coward?" he asked, looking down at the ground./p  
p class="MsoNormal""That's a loaded question. But no, I don't think so," Yuri replied./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Then why am I so scared of everyone all the time? Especially her…?" Shiroe sighed, scraping the sole of his shoe against the tiles. "I… I don't get it."/p  
p class="MsoNormal"He was talking about Amaya... "Well, being a coward doesn't necessarily equate to being scared all the time. Being scared isn't a bad thing. It depends on what you let that fear do," Yuri shrugged. "At least, it seems that simple to me, yeah?"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""I guess…" Shiroe sighed, rubbing his forearm./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Yuri sighed. "Well, I found my goal, so long as you're quiet…" Shiroe gave him a curious look as Yuri walked to the benches and just lay down on them. He tried to get his breath back, and the fatigue out of him. He swore he had more bruises in the time he was at school than at the beginning of the day./p  
p class="MsoNormal""You seem really tired…" Shiroe noted./p  
p class="MsoNormal""I am. Unless you want to carry me back home?" Yuri laughed./p  
p class="MsoNormal""I… I don't know if I feel good enough to do something like that," he replied sheepishly, sitting on another bench near Yuri./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Alright," Yuri said, closing his eyes. "Wake me up in 20 minutes or something then."/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Sounds good," Shiroe said, leaning against the wall./p  
p class="MsoNormal"…/p  
p class="MsoNormal""So, what is it?" Amaya asked, leaning against the railing./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Well, to be honest… I'm not really sure what I'm doing here," Makoto began. "I've been thinking about… what my purpose here is. Honestly, I just came here for fun, but… I guess I'm saying that maybe I should do something more?"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Aw, really?" she blinked. "That's deep actually…" Amaya mused aloud./p  
p class="MsoNormal""I dunno if you have any ideas or whatever…" he shrugged./p  
p class="MsoNormal""What made you think about this?" Amaya asked./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Well, this might sound weird, but my parents contacted me in a dream last night," Makoto explained. "Mother said that she wants to know whether I can find some 'greater purpose' or whatnot."/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Huh. I think that kinda thing comes with time, you know?" Amaya replied./p  
p class="MsoNormal""I guess so. I'm just impatient, I think," Makoto chuckled, but his expression returned to his pensive one from before./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Is there something else?" she asked, never missing it./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Yeah. I guess… it's my dad," he sighed./p  
p class="MsoNormal""What about him?" Amaya asked, folding her arms./p  
p class="MsoNormal""Well to be honest, I don't really get along with him all that often. He can come off as really irresponsible… and makes jokes about everything. Minato isn't all that mature yet, and… I don't like how it seems like he can't take care of me properly," Makoto explained. "Nyx always took the reins on something like that."/p  
p class="MsoNormal"She furrowed her brow. Amaya wasn't sure how to feel about it. Kanashi certainly acted immature sometimes, but he always came around when there was something wrong. So the question of empathy wasn't the same. "Hm… he seems more like an older brother, if you're putting him like that…"/p  
p class="MsoNormal""…I don't want him to be my older brother. I want him to be a dad," he sighed, looking at the ground./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Amaya sighed too. "Sorry then."/p  
p class="MsoNormal""Nah, it's alright," Makoto shrugged, looking at the sky./p  
p class="MsoNormal""It looks like it's going to rain. Is the weather being angsty too?" he mused aloud, a small smile on his face as a raindrop landed on his tongue./p  
p class="MsoNormal""I doubt that's sanitary," Amaya pointed out./p 


	8. One More Bottle - Original

"That's when we, that's when we ride! That's when we, that's when we ride on these bitches!" Kanashi hummed happily as he walked to Club Escapade. Instead of being in his usual suit for work, he opted for a long-sleeved shirt (which he'd rolled the sleeves up of), jeans and Chucks. Seeing as he was drinking, he definitely didn't want to get anything really important dirty.

He got into the club no problem, since he was a regular there and went every so often. At least, often enough that he was recognisable. It was usually when Kiru invited him out.

When he got there, Yashiro and Hibiki were already at the bar, talking. None of them appeared to be drinking that much. Yet. Hehe. "Hey Kanashi," Yashiro greeted.

"Hey. Guess Kurow and my friend aren't here yet," he decided.

"Gee, Kanashi. It was nice of you to invite him," Hibiki laughed.

"Yeah, yeah. He invited me out here all the time. Figured I should pay him back for that," Kanashi shrugged.

"Guess so," Yashiro agreed.

The doors opened once more, and this time, it was Kiru. "Hello," he greeted, walking over to the group.

"Hey Kiru. This is Yashiro and Hibiki. You two, this is Kiru," Kanashi introduced briefly.

"Nice to meet you," HIbiki said with a smile.

"Same here," Yashiro nodded slightly.

"Thanks. I hope we get along," Kiru smiled. "So uh… is this everyone?"

"There's one more person," Yashiro explained. He looked up to the doors, seeing as they had opened once again. Last, but not least, Kurow strode to the bar area and promptly took a seat.

"Kurow, Kiru, Kiru, Kurow," Kanashi said, introducing them _very_ quickly.

"Cool. Good to meet ya," Kurow smirked.

Kiru blinked and gulped. Why did that smirk of his make him a little unsettled? "Nice to meet you."

"Yup. So let me guess… ah yes, we have here a wild Yashiro with a Bloody Mary, and a Hibiki with a Cuba Libre… goddammit guys! Order something already!" Kurow said with an exasperated sigh.

""One glass of whisky please," Kiru said.

"One whole bottle of vodka yo," Kanashi called with a grin.

"The whole bottle…? Dude what?" Yashiro blinked, then took a small sip of his drink to calm down. "Are you _looking_ to get smashed or something?"

"Maybe," Kanashi snickered. Well, not exactly, but shenanigans would ensure regardless.

"Welp, just a dark beer for me then," Kurow announced.

In the backgrounf, the bartender Daisuke (he'd given Kanashi an incredulous look too) went about preparing the drinks. "Better order some water later then…" Kiru muttered. With how intense Kanashi was going, everything bad could happen at once.

"I guess you don't wanna drink too much?" Hibiki asked Kurow.

"Yeah… I'm probably only gonna have one drink, and that's it," Kurow shrugged as he took a sip for the mug that was handed to him. "Bet I'll stay sober the longest."

"We'll see. So, what've you been doing the past week?" Yashiro asked.

"Well… I dunno. Just building like usual, I guess. Nothing really _exciting_ has been going on," Kurow answered.

"Hey, Daisuke," Kanashi whispered to the bartender. Daisuke gave a 'hm?' in response. "Can I get about four more cans of the beer he's drinking?" he asked, indicating Kurow.

"…I sincerely hope you know what you're doing," Daisuke replide, grabbing what Kanashi requested. And he'd already caught on to what Kanashi was going to do.

As everyone kept talking, Kanashi subtly refilled what Kurow was sipping, and mixing in the vidka form his bottle with everyone else's drinks. Only Kiru noticed, and by the time everyone else could've figured out that their glasses simply weren't emptying and that their drinks tasted different, they were too drunk to.

"Dude, stop doing that," Kiru scolded.

"But it's – hic – funny!" Kanashi protested, pointing out how the other three's voices were starting to slur, and the things they were saying didn't quite make sense for their characters.

Yes, Kiru's drink had been refilled too at some point, but unlike the others had a fairly high tolerance for alcohol intake without getting drunk.

"Wait, what's funny?" Kurow asked.

"This douche has been refilling your drinks with vodka," Kiru sighed.

"Ohhh. _That's_ why it felt like I'd never finished it," Yashiro realised. At least, as far as his brain could process it at that moment. Whatever coherence he had was not going to last.

"What the fuck Kanashi!?" Hibiki roared. Oh whoops. Someone already snapped.

"But it was funny goddammit!" Kanashi said pitifully, sprawling onto the table. He actually sounded really distressed when he said that.

"Nah man, it's fine! I looooove your work man!" Kurow said with a sing-song voice, slinging his arm around Kanashi's shoulder. Thank god Daisuke's shift was over already, otherwise he'd have had to help deal with the mess Kanashi just made. "Almost – hic – as much as I love you!" he grinned, hugging Kanashi tightly.

"W-What!? How can you like that – hic – hopeless… bastard?" Hibiki exclaimed. "God, you guys make me sick!" He seemed to be about to storm off, but Yashiro caught him by the wrist and pulled Hibiki back towards him. "Let go of me you… you fuckwad!"

"Hehe… I like it when they're all feisty," Yashiro chuckled, pulling Hibiki towards his lap.

"Oh shit…" Kiru gulped. He was going to have to drag these guys back to their homes…

"S-Sadistic little shit! Don't you – hic – fucking dare!" Hibiki growled, trying to elbow Yashiro in the stomach. Except his attempt to get out of his grip didn't work because Yashiro just changed positions and moved out of the way. In fact, his crotch was uncomfortably close to Hibiki's butt by this point…

"Did you just say you wanna fuck?" Yashiro asked, the smirk on his face growing.

"No! What the hell are you saying!?" he protested, finally able to break free of Yashiro's grip.

"I am saying… I am so goddamned horny right now, I could fuck that mug," Yashiro said, pointing to Kurow's still not empty mug of beer. And then came his maniacal laugh, at which point Hibiki and Kiru just looked on at him in complete and utter horror.

"Then will you let me love you?" Kurow asked, dislodging from Kanashi and sidling up to Yashiro instead.

"Oh don't worry…" Yashiro reassured, pulling Kurow's head to his chest. "I'll give you all the love you want," he breathed into his ear.

"Guys! We can't go NSFW! Not now!" Kanashi wailed in distress, very much destroying any mood that was building up.

"I think you should all go home," Kiru supplied.

"Pshh. Make me!" Hibiki said childishly.

"Aww… thanks Yashiro," Kurow cooed, hugging him around his neck. Whether or not they were on the same wavelength was yet to be seen. If everyone was sober, they definitely would've hoped that they weren't. "Hey, Yashiro…"

"What's up?" he asked, trying to loosen Kurow grip a little.

"I love you," Kurow said wth a giddy smile.

"Okay," Yashiro nodded.

"Hey Hibiki!" Kurow giggled.

"What is it Kurow?" Hibiki glared.

"I love youuuu."

"Hey, Kurow," Hibiki said flatly.

"Yup?"

"Fuck off."

Hibiki lunged after urow, but was held back by Kiru, barely. "W-What the hell!?" Kiru shouted.

"He looked at me funny!" Hibiki accused.

"W-Why do you guys always leave me out?" Kanashi cried. "I want a hug too!"

"But I like Yashiro most!" Kurow pouted. "Hey, Yashiro, do you remember the time when you pounded me in the ass that one night?"

"…" That was everyone else's silence.

"No, I actually don't, Kurow," Yashiro replied. "Would you like me to make it a reality, bitch?" he grinned devilishly.

"No! Guys, we should definitely get out of here!" Kiru declared, having had his fair share of crazy antics for about a good month or so.

Kurow gasped. "Aww, you love me too Kiru?" he asked. The guy totally sounded like one of those giddy schoolgirls that just found out her crush loved her too. His smile was that of a kid on Christmas morning with every kind of present he could wish for. But, he never let go of Yashiro.

"W-What!? No! I said, we need to get out of here," Kiru groaned. Maybe Kanashi only brought him along because he figured something like the situation they were in would happen? That's it. He was never going to accept Kanashi's invitations again.

"Lemme go already!" Hibiki snarled, trying to kid his way out of Kiru's grip.

"Never!" Kiru dragged him along, Kurow followed after them and held onto one of Hibiki's still flailing hands, Yashiro was still being held onto by Kurow, and Kanashi was brought along by Yashiro. It was probably the most fucked up parade anyone would see on that night. It went something like:

"Hibiki, don't leave! I love you too! Remember that time when you gave me flowers on New Years Eve? I was so happy! I knew that you finally loved me that day!"

"Shut up! Stop talking shit about me behind my back!"

"You're not getting away Kanashi. Every single one of you is mine."

"I just wanna go home… I've been running in circles, I hurt myself, just to find my purpose…"

Funny thing about the comment Kurow made. Hibiki _did_ give him flowers on New Years Eve. Along with every other family in the Shadow Hunters group. So he just got part of that memory messed up.

Meanwhile, Kiru was trying to lead at least Kanashi back to his house. He didn't know where the others lived, but gathered from their sober conversations that their families all knew each other.

But of course, things weren't just going to go according to plan. The messed up conga line broke when they passed by a park. "Hey! Isn't that a basketball court!? I love basketball courts! I haven't played in one for ages!" Kurow exclaimed, pointing to the grassy park.

The reasons why he hadn't played in one for ages? One, he sucked at basketball. Two, his father agreed. Three, his father was an asshole and didn't let him play.

"Don't tell me weren't gonna play _basketball_ of all the fucking sports in the world!" Hibiki growled, clearly objecting to everything basketball related. Because he could. "That's a stupid idea!"

"But I wanna play basketball…" Kanashi whined.

Yashiro chuckled darkly. "I agree…"

"Guys, there isn't a basketball court here," Kiru sighed. But were they going to listen?

"Shut up Kiru! I need to show these guys what a shitty idea playing basketball is," Hibiki protested. Not that it would help his case at all. If anything, it would prove just the opposite of the thing he wanted to.

And as an answer to the earlier question… no. Of course they weren't going to listen.

"Then let's play some basketball," Yashiro grinned.

At this point, Kiru was ready to give up. In fact, he let go of Hibiki. Maybe it would be better to wait until they got a hangover. It would be easier to handle them then.

The four congregated in the grass, trying to decide who was going to be on what team.

"I'm staying with Yashiro!" Kurow declared, not moving an inch from his earlier position. He was still hugging him.

"Why does he get to pick first?" Kanashi complained.

"It doesn't matter! We're still going to beat their asses!" Hibiki declared. "Hell, get away from me you little shithead! Stop looking at me funny," he snarled, shoving Kanashi over to the other team.

"Yay! Kanashi joined! Kanashi joined!" Kurow said happily.

The night was cool, simmering with Ruby tension as Hibiki and his team stared down Kanashi, Yashiro, Kurow and their team. And you know what? They had an absurdly large audience. They alone were going to play the next gruelling quarters. It would certainly be a sight. Even Kiru was interested as to how the game was going to play out.

The whistle of the referee blew, and the ball flew into the air. Yashiro went first, being the tallest and batted the ball into his team's possession. He dribbled the ball as far as he as he could to the opposite side of the court.

Hibiki's team was coming after him however, and although he was fast, it would be disadvantageous to miss a chance to score out of pressure. Yashiro passed the ball to Kurow who had been open.

It was not to be.

Hibiki managed to grab the ball out of the air and started his way to their scoring hoop. Kanashi saw him coming and swung his hands, trying to block his view from his other teammates. He attempted to pass like Yashiro did before, to another of his teammates. This time, Kurow caught it and immediately passed to Yashiro, who took the opportunity to run to their hoop. He hung from the hoop and slam dunked the ball into the hoop.

The game continued for yet another hour with hardly any timeouts or breaks.

Kurow, Kanashi and Yashiro's team won out in the end.

And in the end, they all passed out.

That's all well and good, but now we should go back to Kiru.

The game actually looked more like this:

Kurow was just not letting go of Yashiro as they dribbled an imaginary ball across the equally imaginary basketball court. Both groups threw air at each other and pretended they were holding a ball.

The guys decided to start the game all on their own, and started all synchronised without the need of a whistle, let alone a referee. Apparently in their minds, they had one. There was so much arguing and insults not only between the teams, but between teammates… and non-existent teammates.

Yashiro complained about how Kurow wasn't doing shit. Eventually, he did, (as opposed to being a barnacle and sticking to him mercilessly) but came back after finishing the 'horrifyingly vicious, fatigue-inducing match of the fucking ages'. Most of the goals were scored by yashiro. Kurow didn't really do much complaining himself. Kanashi mostly moped about how they weren't passing the ball to him (which wasn't true in many senses of the phrase), and Hibiki was insulting _everyone_, including the other four imaginary members in his team. They even heard him shouting to his 'substitutes'. And that was the hugest contribution to his loss, really.

At the end, the winning team chanted:

"What team!?"

"Basketball!"

"What team!?"

"Basketball!"

"What team!?"

"Wildcats!" Kurow shouted. Everyone in Team Basketball looked at him with a mix of horror and shock. They took a few moments to recompose themselves.

"Basketball!"

Then, they all passed out, including HIbiki. He wasn't even involved with the chanting.

"Oh thank god, Kiru sighed, pocketing his phone. After that train wreck of a night, Kiru dragged Kanashi, and eventually the rest, to their houses, with Hinata's help. When Kiru showed up at Kanashi's doorstep, resident on shoulder, she opened up the doors.

"Let me guess. He was utterly smashed, wasn't he?" Hinata sighed, expecting the result, but still disappointed.

"Yeah. I'm sorry. I tried to stop them, but…" Kiru looked down at the ground.

"It's alright. Do you need help getting those other stooges back too?" Hinata asked.

"Yes please," he nodded.

She nodded back, grabbed the back of Kanashi's collar, dragged him, and left him on the couch. "Well then…"

The two of them brought the other three back to their homes.

Unfortunately, Yashiro woke up while thye were going, and Kiru had to deal with his drunken antics. He was… touchy feely as ever. They decided to take him second.

"Reiko, bad news," HInata said, rapping on the door.

A few stumbling steps and clacking from the unlocking door, Reiko answered with, "Is he wasted?"

"Basically," Kiru said, hauling Yashiro over. He might've been awake, but he was still obscenely tired.

"…Oh crap. It's Reiko," he mumbled.

"Yes. Now please, get in," Reiko sighed. It sounded pleading any other time she said something like that to Yashiro, but this time, it was a demand. Yashiro obediently followed in. "Thanks Hinata…"

"His name is Kiru," Hinata helpfully supplied.

"Oh. Thanks Kiru!" she smiled. "Good luck with them." With that, she closed the door.

"…" Kiru was about to open his mouth, but was interrupted.

"No. No-one knows who the dominant one in that relationship is," Hinata explained. And she hit the question Kiru was asking right on the head.

For the rest, it was mostly the same; seeing the wives, apologising, hanging the respective drunkard over, putting said drunkard on the couch. They went to sleep after that.

…

Kurow woke up, intense buzzing at the back of his hand. When he sat up, he found Muzumi sitting on his lap. "Oh uh… good morning…" he said awkwardly.

"Daddy!"

"Hm?"

"Fuck you daddy!"

"Muzumi! But I'm your daddy," he protested weakly.

"Mummy!" Muzumi said to Shiki.

"Yes dear?"

"Fuck you daddy!"

Kurow was stunned silent. Her words pierced his soul. "That's punishment for getting wasted last night," Shiki decided with a small smile.

Something told Kurow that he shouldn't swear in front of Muzumi so much.

…

"Ugh…" Yashiro groaned, not bothering to open his eyes, lest there was a light up above him that would render him blind.

"Hi dad," Shiroe greeted. "Mum's doing stuff in the kitchen."

"Oh. Okay," he tried to nod, but it felt like his brain was being bashed around in his own skull when he tried.

"I'm surprised you guys didn't do anything weird last night though," Shiroe commented.

Yashiro opened his mouth, but found no response. "I fucked up."

…

Kanashi still felt dizzy when he woke up. Amaya walked over past him, waved, put her hands together in prayer, bowed, and then walked off, Makoto following after her. He only gave him a sympathetic look, but the sentiment was the same.

At least, from what he could tell.

Then Hinata came along. Her eyes were closed behind a pleasant smile. Kanashi gulped. "You're awake."

Before Kanashi could formulate a response, hard impact

She sighed and went back to the kitchen, carrying her frying pan.

…

Hibiki shook his head, trying to shake the haziness out. "Mayumi… where's Yuri?" he asked groggily. He'd done this before, and Yuri would usually be there to joke about how different he was when he was drunk, along with what happened.

Mayumi bit her lip. "He's… he's at the hospital."


	9. A Kiss Won't Make This Better - Original

"Kanashi, I suggest you think about what you've done," Kiru scolded with folded arms.

"Uh… yeah…" he replied absentmindedly, rubbing his head. It was still throbbing from where Hinata had hit him with that damned frying pan of hers. He swore that there should've been blood, but there never was when she tried. "What about the whole hangover thing…?"

Kiru just sighed and opened up his phone, scrolling through his pictures and videos until he came to the latest one. "I mean this. I swear, if you're just going to bring me along as someone to drag you back to your house after you've gotten shitfaced, I'm going to post this thing on Youtube."

"W-What!?" Kanashi exclaimed, and tried to bat Kiru's phone from his grip. However, being as tired and hazy as he was, he didn't stand a chance getting that phone off him. "You can't be serious! But I need you!" And they were acting like total fucking _idiots_ that night!

"So you admit it…" Kiru sighed, turning his back dramatically. Honestly, he would still come along, since that was him, being him…

But he was going to keep his word.

"Hey, is it just me, or is it storming really hard? I'm not going to like getting home…" Kanashi complained.

Meanwhile, Makoto, Amaya and Shiroe had managed to rush back to Kanashi's house. They were still drenched, but steadily drying off in the home's heat. "So, I heard that Yuri couldn't come to school today…" Amaya sighed. "I wish he'd come more often, but I guess he won't if he doesn't want to."

"I agree," Shiroe nodded. He helped him a lot yesterday, what with his angsty teenage shit and everything. Honestly, he was still messed up from his thoughts, but he felt like he could deal with it for a little while longer if he could talk to someone about it. He didn't feel like he could talk to Makoto about it since he was part of the problem he'd made for himself, and Amaya was completely out of the question. She could not know… "It makes me wonder what happened, but I remember he was kinda tired looking when I met with him yesterday…"

"Maybe that has something to do with it," Makoto observed. "It's not as if that should be a regular thing."

"I think that might be it, but I wonder what it's caused by…" she wondered aloud. Amaya struggled to think of any possibilities, considering there were just so many causes for fatigue then and now.

For Hibiki, he already knew what was wrong. He was there at the hospital lobby, trying to keep calm. "Yuri…" Hibiki mumbled to himself, his voice quiet as his heart was blocking his throat and making it hard to breathe at all. He tried to keep calm, he really did. But when it was Yuri, he couldn't. There were times when he could talk about panicking and being nervous around people that he'd liked before, and how sad she could be.

But Yuri was the sole exception along with Mayumi that made it so he could never calm his own storm until the problem went away for real.

His arms were shuddering, and his shoulders would not calm down. He paced the corridor, maybe he would start to make footprints in the ground where he was walking. Make little jokes to himself… Try to keep his spirits up… Yuri was like that. He was good at it. He made everything seem like it was okay.

Except when it happened to him.

Mayumi explained it to him.

Yuri had collapsed while he was notating a tune for the lyrics he'd been writing. He was hardly breathing, and it was slight. There were bruises along his arms and knees that he'd fallen upon. Normally, just falling on the ground wouldn't bruise you that badly, but for Yuri, it simply wasn't the case. Ugly, purple blotches of discoloured skin were along his skin, and Mayumi had definitely panicked when she saw them.

But, she knew better than to say that someone had attacked him.

He'd gotten bruises very easily; since he was a child, in fact.

But Yuri never liked admitting that he was frail. He could never admit something like that; something that implied weakness. He was supposed to be strong.

Hibiki had supported him along the way, because he believed that Yuri could be strong enough to be a successful musician, no matter the means, or what kind of musician either. He'd remembered that Yuri had literally been picking at guitar strings since he was a little boy no older than four. And he made music on that guitar. He was playing, but it sounded like some of the songs Hibiki and Mayumi had been listening to at the time.

He grew up liking the idea of metal songs and rock, especially being able to play them. Yuri never played for long, because even his fingers could get bruised from continual playing after a while. Not that it stopped him for long.

Hibiki was never concerned about the neighbours or anyone else when it came to Yuri. He didn't care about the sound he was making, or how loud he was being. He could've cared less. He only cared that Yuri could get his work done. Of course, he also had to be careful of just how much Yuri was working. He wasn't that blind or stupid enough to let him work all the time.

Since playing his old friend's guitar as simply as a fiddle, he knew Yuri would grow up to love music. Whether it was Lorene Drive, Metallica, Iron Maiden, Fall Out Boy, Flow, Megadeth… whatever the hell he liked, he was going to be good at trying to play their songs.

This was how Hibiki and Yuri _worked_. Hibiki would help him and appreciate Yuri's aspirations whenever he had a chance, while Yuri composed and worked not only for his own benefit, but to make his dad happy.

Hibiki's father wasn't the best man. He was never proud of him, and never once did he think of showing respect, if not for when his mother stepped in. He was strict, and always called him a waste of space.

He'd vowed to himself that he wouldn't be that man if he had his own child. He'd vowed he'd support them every single step of the way, take care of them and love them for whoever they were. Maybe Hibiki didn't like how Yuri kept on copying Kurow all the time with his swearing and his goddamned mismatching boots. Maybe he wasn't so sure about him wearing a trench coat and sunglasses goddamned everywhere.

But he let him, because he knew that he loved being himself.

He sometimes let him skip out on school because he had band things going on, or maybe he wasn't feeling the best. He'd let him dye his hair whatever freaking colour he wanted, wear whatever he wanted (well, okay, there was a limitation to that) and he'd always, always, let him chase his dreams.

Hibiki knew how it felt to be shot down. Hell, it was like that with almost every girl he'd liked so far, and sometimes people just put him down just because they thought it was funny. He could never do that to Yuri. Never.

His little boy, and goddammit, he could call him that if he wanted to… if he lost him he had no idea what he'd do. If the gods truly were cruel enough to end what struggle he had made thus far, then he'd curse them to the ends of the earth.

He wanted to know if Yuri was okay.

"You have to stop worrying by yourself," Mayumi said, placing a hand on Hibiki's shoulder.

He was almost surprised and locked up when he felt her, but calmed down knowing it was Mayumi. "I-I know… I'm sorry. I just… I hope he's okay…"

"I know how you feel, Hibiki," she replied, trying to calm him down with her words while cupping his cheek with her hand. "I'm sure he'll be fine though. I mean, it's Yuri. He won't let something like this keep him down, you know? You know him well enough for something like that."

He opened his mouth to protest, but just sighed instead. She was right. All he could do was wait. Wait for the doctor to come back with good news. Wait for Yuri to wake up. Wait for Yuri to be back to his normal self again. "Y-You're right…"

Mayumi nodded, knowing not to say any more. This had happened some times before, but the shock of the whole thing never failed to send Hibiki and Mayumi in a panic. Mayumi always recomposed herself faster than Hibiki, and if it wasn't recomposing, it was just because she'd been waiting to cry at home. Hibiki wasn't quite the same… but maybe it was because he had many more worse memories attached to losing friends and people that he loved, or liked.

After more moments of tense waiting, the doctor came and told them the results of the testing. They were relieved to hear that Yuri had awoken once again, but he was going to have to stay there. It seemed that his lymphocyte count had temporarily stabilised, for whatever reason, and he wasn't feeling tired or anything. Of course, no-one could be sure.

Hibiki winced internally. Yuri hated not being able to do anything, especially in hospitals. He remembered that Yuri always told him about how awful it was doing nothing, sleeping all the time, being fed perhaps less than satisfactory hospital food… He wasn't going to like it like all the other times.

But Hibiki also wasn't stupid enough to think that the situation could magically get better on its own without some sort of therapy.

Most of the time, he was always torn between leaving Yuri in the hospital to recover, or letting Yuri do his thing. He didn't have much of an answer and Yuri's stay was never fully definitive either. Usually, he managed to come home with some new drug and ignore it for the most part. What Hibiki found interesting was that Yuri never, ever once had gotten into a situation so bad that it was near irreparable. Hibiki always swore that sometimes the next cut or bruise he gained just disappeared into thin air.

He always thought that it was because… maybe, just maybe, he had a Persona that was protecting him.

The thought didn't necessarily reassure him, but it was something to hold onto.

For him, it always seemed that Yuri was still always fighting. After a while, Hibiki and Mayumi left, deciding to visit Yuri when they were allowed. Yuri understood, and was left in his hospital room; a whole load of white monotony.

Yuri wasn't allowed to do anything strenuous. Literally, his only job was to lay there until the doctors decided to either let him go, get the new treatment, try some other treatment, or go back to the one he had before. No matter what happened, the symptoms would disappear for a while, and then come back.

But this time… well, maybe he was just imagining it. He felt as if there was something inside him trying to get out, thrashing against his rib cage. It didn't hurt though. In fact, it felt as if he could do anything with it. If it ever got out…

He wasn't sure what would happen, but it would definitely be interesting to see.

Yuri loved thunderstorms. Outside the window, thunder began to roll after the lightning briefly parted the sky in two. Rain poured down and battered the windows. He loved listening to that sound. He wanted to capture that kind of powerful, forceful sound in the guitar his dad gave him.

One day, he thought he would be free from this damned disease. It was called hairy cell leukaemia. He never knew how he contracted it, but he had to deal with it now. For now, he slept inside his own body's cage with the sound of freedom there, banging against the wall.

Makoto watched the rain from inside his room, musing that it was his first time seeing rain for himself. Let alone a thunderstorm.

He wondered whether the lightning was a god trying to get out from its chains… Well, it was a silly notion, but it was fun to think about things like that. The lightning was just huge streams of electrons caused by clouds discharging them above. That is, they met, had too many electrons and simply had to get them out somehow.

…well, when you put it like that, lightning doesn't seem as exciting, does it? Either way…

Time seemed to be flying by. He felt like it hadn't been too long in the human world, but truthfully, days were going past much faster than he thought he was ready for.

He looked out the window, just observing the rain-soaked streets…

And he swore, he swore… he saw a black figure in the rain, staring at him with yellow eyes.


	10. A Little More - Original

It was no exaggeration to say that pretty much everyone that had gotten wasted a night ago was horrified to see what happened when Kiru uploaded the video, like he said he would. Yashiro was the most horrified, but the reaction was less disgust and more shock.

The video not _only_ showed them shouting at each other, playing in the grass, getting shots into hoops in the air, throwing nothing and shouting at the sky. It also showed how well and truly drunk Yashiro was. Because he was shitfaced enough to think that he was playing the game… and used Panta Rhei to make himself levitate while he was getting slam dunks.

Now that was impressive. Even Kiru wasn't sure what to make of it.

The good news was that no-one else seemed to know either. All the comments were filled up with questions about how 'that guy was totes floating in the air lol, how is he doing that?', and if they weren't they were talking about just how drunk they were and how funny (read: stupid) they were. At least, in regards to the Japanese people that watched it.

"Wait, Yashiro, how did you…?" Kanashi asked but trailed off as Yashiro seemed not to have an answer to his, and Kurow's silent question.

"I… I honestly have no fucking idea…" Yashiro managed to say, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I sincerely hope this doesn't happen in the future to Shiroe…"

"Damn straight," Kurow piped in.

"You know, by saying that, I think _someone's_ tempting fate," Kanashi sighed, pointing the statement to Yashiro.

"Shut up Kanashi," Yashiro said, equally as exasperated by Kanashi's words.

…

Makoto stood up, and tilted his head. The figure seemed to notice him following it, and mirrored his tilted head. Despite the storm and darkness, he began to walk outside, lucky enough not to pass anyone as he exited.

He took an umbrella with him and pulled on a raincoat. At least, the storm didn't have wind blowing petrichor into his face too, so it was just raining really hard as opposed to having the trees swaying about in the background. It covered him as he followed after the figure.

It started walking as Makoto neared, almost telling him to follow. Against his better judgement, he decided to see who this person was. The person was walking at a slow pace, seemingly not bothered by the rain at all. Makoto almost swore that he saw the slightest smile as he followed.

The person stopped near a bench and sat down, beckoning Makoto over. Breathing out and getting a small cloud of vapour, he followed, but didn't sit. He wasn't interested in getting his clothes any wetter than they already were. They weren't wet right then… but they were getting uncomfortably damp, and his shoes. Oh god, his shoes.

"Hello," the person said. Makoto recognised him now. He was a guy, and seemed to be around the same age as him. He was wearing a hoodie that clung to his body and face, along with his hair, making it hard to see anything that distinguished him. "I'm surprised you followed me."

"You were noticeable…" Makoto said. "Aren't you getting wet?"

"I like the rain. I don't mind it too much," he replied.

"…what's your name?" Makoto asked, holding out his umbrella slightly to cover him.

"Well… I guess you can call me Arashi," he said, holding out a hand. Makoto was confused, seeing as he was used to the Japanese greeting. "Oh, you shake my hand," he explained.

Using his free hand, Makoto shook his cold one. He figured he would be cold from the rain, but… there was something almost uncomfortably cold about his grip. "Alright… I'm Makoto."

"Nice to meet you." Arashi nodded. "But I didn't come here to talk formalities, even though I just did and contradicted myself…"

"What do you mean?" Makoto asked, narrowing his eyes. Their eyes met. At least, the one Makoto could see. His hair was pressed so firmly against his cheek that he could hardly see one of them. But they were definitely golden, and set him on edge.

"Well, I need to fight you. I don't like it, but you have to do what you have to do when you don't really have much of a reason to live," Arashi said with a sigh.

"Fight me? Why? Why can't we be friends?" Makoto asked sadly, their hands parting.

Arashi removed a knife from his hoodie's front pocket. "Someone told me that I have to kill you. Sorry. But, I'd prefer to be fair. Fighting you toe to toe sounds interesting, I think. And don't worry. No-one can see us."

"Uh, okay," he replied, getting in a stance. Honestly, if he tried to use a sword, he felt like he wouldn't have a very good advantage, especially if he was faster. It was the same problem he'd encountered with Yashiro. Having a decent enough close-range weapon didn't work very well against an opponent that was even more close-range than you were just didn't do.

"Forgive me," Arashi muttered before charging towards Makoto. As he had anticipated, he was faster than him. Getting the message, Makoto used a Sukukaja to speed him up temporarily, weaving through the stabs of Arashi's knife. He certainly wasn't as fast as Yashiro, so that was a relief. "Are you used to faster opponents?" he asked.

"The last one was faster," Makoto agreed as Arashi stopped.

"Thought so. Why don't we try brute force instead?" As he said that, lightning surged from his hand. Immediately, Makoto braced himself for the attack. The Ziodyne hit him and coursed through his body… actually, he swore he was in a similar situation before. However, since he'd been expecting it that time, he could react to Arashi's onslaught after. "I'm impressed…"

Makoto didn't respond, and only charged his fists with Almighty energy as he dodged. The next punch he threw was dodged, but he immediately followed up with yet another jab. This time, Arashi couldn't evade the attack, and ended up with a fist to his cheek. A crack rang out as he was smacked to the side, but Makoto knew that it was a bad idea to wait until he'd recovered and uppercut him in the chin when he was vulnerable.

Naturally, Arashi's body came cascading to the ground, splashing water everywhere onto his clothes. "Whew… you're pretty tough, aren't you?" he laughed, rubbing his chin and struggling to stand up. Makoto must've gotten him clean in the chin if it worked.

"Y-You're… you're tough yourself," Makoto said, surprised as Arashi recovered.

"Thank you," he replied. "But I'm not done."

"Neither am I."

"Good." Water started to surround Arashi, droplets of rain suspending around him. Makoto was immediately on guard, and wondered what the attack was going to do. The rain came pelting at him like bullets, and he dodged what he could. However, the Sukukaja was fading fast resulting in him getting clipped on the shoulder.

Makoto hissed as bruises formed where the water bullets hit. This wasn't good… He couldn't keep getting hit by those damned raindrops. With that in mind, he put up a Makarakarn wall to reflect the bullets and send them back shooting to Arashi.

He hadn't anticipated the wall and was hit square in the chest by them. Arashi let out a growl as he tried to shrug the pain off. However, he was sure that he was getting some big, ugly bruises there… "Tch…" Arashi shook his head to regather his wits, only to see Makoto grabbing his hoodie and lifting him up. "Oh wow, you're fast…"

"I'm assuming… that if I don't kill you, you're just going to keep attacking me," Makoto said, summoning his sword into his free fist.

"Well, yes. But even if you kill me now, I'm going to come back later, good as new. Just saying," Arashi replied.

Makoto only hesitated for a moment before burying his sword into Arashi's stomach. The blade disappeared after a few moments, but instead of blood, black liquid poured out from the wound. "Y-You're… a Shadow?" he managed to get out as Arashi's body started to disintegrate into black liquid and red mist.

"Yeah. So, I'll be back later. I hope you don't get worse at this kinda fighting thing," Arashi said as he disappeared.

"Is this… what mum was talking about?" Makoto wondered aloud as the rain washed away the little ichor that splashed onto him. Picking up his umbrella, he headed back, wondering what this all meant.

This time, Amaya managed to catch him when he entered. "Hey dude, why're you… totally drenched?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

Makoto answered simply as he put the umbrella away, hung his raincoat and took off his shoes, "I went for a walk to find someone who wanted to kill me."

"Wait, what?" Amaya blinked.

"I saw someone outside and he seemed to be kinda waiting for me," Makoto said. "So, I went to follow him, and it turned out he was a Shadow looking to kill me."

"A Shadow!?" she exclaimed.

"Yeah. A Shadow," he nodded. "But… hey, I got socked by a load of electricity and hit in the shoulder with water bullets, so maybe I should… just go to sleep."

"…right. You do that," Amaya nodded slowly as Makoto trudged to his room. A few moments later, Kanashi arrived home, about as drenched as Makoto, if not more so. "Hey dad."

"'sup girl?" he asked. "Something happen?"

"What would you do if a Shadow appeared now? You know, the ones you used to kill when you were younger?" Amaya asked.

"What would I do? I'd knock it upside the head," Kanashi replied, as if it was the simplest thing in the world. It wasn't like he was the one doing it now, but he could still summon his Persona, just like Yashiro, Kurow and Hibiki. And really, it was as if he was the unofficial leader of the Shadow Hunters; them. "Why? It's not as if there is really any showing up nowadays, and if they are, they're usually small fries."

"Well, from what I heard from Makoto, apparently he just fought one out in the rain," she sighed, rubbing her temple. "Something's telling me it's not going to be all either."

Kanashi's face fell into a deadpan, and he facepalmed. Hard. "Welp Yashiro, you got your wish!" he groaned. "Welp, I got some calls to make in that case. I don't see the kid lying."

"Okay then… also dad, what was with that video Kiru posted?" Amaya asked.

And Kanashi froze. "Uh… well, honestly, I have no fucking idea what happened last night, since I was so hammered, so…"

"Wow dad. Well, alright then. I guess I'll have to ask Yashiro about it," she nodded. "Have you heard from Hibiki about Yuri though?"

"Uh yeah, I have. But as always, he's trying to keep the boy's confidentiality and shit," Kanashi replied flatly. However, it was no secret that he was frustrated. If he could help, then it'd be little to no problem. Especially since he knew how much Hibiki loved his kid.

"Aw, okay. I hope he's fixed up soon," Amaya said.

Kanashi chuckled and after a few moments he replied, "I hope he'll be okay too. You know, if something _really_ bad happened to Yuri, Hibiki would be so pissed." Kanashi was trying his best to lighten up the situation a little bit.

"…would you be pissed if something happened to me?" she asked. Just to be clear, Kanashi and Amaya were fairly close, so it was just a question to see how he'd react.

"Hell yes. I'd be smashing that mothercanucker's head in, even if I get charged for assault," Kanashi said proudly, turning up his nose. And you know, he probably _could_ get charged for assault on a whole lot of other grounds too, but he didn't need to mention something like that.

"Well, that makes me feel better," Amaya smiled. "I'd hug you right now, but you're kinda wet so…"

"Yeah, I'll stop making a puddle here. Good thing I got the roof fixed up before this storm though…" Kanashi mused aloud. He looked up at the ceiling, where the hole Makoto made earlier once was. With that, he started walking.

"I agree with that one," she nodded.

…

Shiroe sighed and ran his towel through his hair, which had gotten a little wet from the rain. It was a little surprising, considering how he always wore his cap all the time. Unlike his dad, who used to wear his caps forward, Shiroe swung his to the back. Funny that… the one Shiroe wore most of the time was the one Yashiro used to wear. Some parts of it were a little dirty, and some parts were even encrusted with dried blood.

"Pff…" Yashiro spun around in a circle on his computer chair. But he wasn't even doing anything on the computer. "Hey Shiroe."

"Hey dad," Shiroe replied, not sure how to continue. He didn't exactly see Yashiro's train of thought.

Yashiro stopped spinning and looked at Shiroe curiously. "Well, I've just been thinking… what's up with you and Amaya?" he asked bluntly.

Shiroe locked up. Yashiro saw his reaction and chuckled. He figured Shiroe would do that. That was exactly what he would do. Even though he was a little shier than he was, Shiroe was still a lot like Yashiro. "I…" he mumbled, trying to find the right words to say. "I… um…"

"Well, I guess I shouldn't really be prying… I know how annoying that can get sometimes," Yashiro sighed.

Shiroe smiled a little in response. "Ugh… well, honestly… I kinda have a crush on her…" he said, every word getting quieter in his sentence.

"A crush, huh?" Yashiro mirrored Shiroe's smile. "Makes sense."

"Really?" he asked.

"Yeah… love's odd," Yashiro shrugged. He felt like he could empathise with Shiroe if he told him what happened to him and Reiko, but… hey, a man's gotta have his secrets, right? "Mind telling me about it?"

Shiroe sighed and walked closer, sitting on a stool near Yashiro's desk. "I'm not really sure I can explain it…"

"Well, when did you start liking her?" Yashiro asked.

"I guess… I've liked her since I was little…" Some of Shiroe's first memories were with Amaya. They'd been childhood friends together with Yuri, so it made sense. "And… I'm not sure when like started turning into something else."

"But… you like her?"

"Yeah… I think do," Shiroe replied shyly.

"Then that's all you need. To be honest, we can all go around searching for a reason why you might like or love someone…" Yashiro said. "But love doesn't always make sense. Sometimes it might."

"You think so?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. To be honest, Shiroe didn't like acting out of line, or in a way that could be considered irrational. One of the biggest conflicts was that trait of his, and that love itself was irrational. It was funny, because that mirrored one of Yashiro's traits that he had before. Now, it wasn't so prominent, even if a little bit of it was there.

"Yeah. Like… How I love you," Yashiro smiled, making Shiroe's eyes widen. "We can be scared of saying it… love itself is pretty scary. I think it goes against human nature… without the lust, or the need to reproduce, love is a strange kinda pure thing that I'm not sure anything else really can feel, let alone understand." And somehow, Shiroe couldn't find a way to reply when Yashiro hugged him, ruffling his hair. "So, I guess I don't mind if you like Amaya," he said.

"But what if she doesn't like me back?"

"I'm sure she likes you, even if it isn't romantic. Don't be silly," Yashiro grinned. "Don't be scared. Besides, you have a lot of people to fall back on."

"…I guess so. It's still a bit scary though."

"Then just tell her when you're ready," he replied. "Between you and me, the only person you should really be scared of is Kanashi."

Shiroe cracked a grin at that and laughed. "Oh yeah, I forgot about him…"

"Yup. Well, get some sleep," Yashiro said. "You still have school tomorrow."

"Okay dad."


	11. Running Free - Original

Blazer sniffed around the next day, searching for unusual scents. The rain would've likely drowned out many, but her sense of smell was exceptional, as was her hearing. Thus, she found the unusual, metallic smell of ichor and blood, where Makoto and Ike had fought the day before. "Arf, arf, arf!" she barked, calling Ken over.

"What's up Blazer?" Ken asked, bending down next to her.

"Arf… Grrrrr groof." Blazer growled, pawing at the ground and putting her nose down.

Ken nodded, seemingly understanding what she said. "You mean… there was a Shadow here and someone…" Blazer tilted her head and placed a paw on his hand, tracing hiragana characters on it. "Oh, Makoto! Makoto fought against it and won…"

"Arf!" she nodded in agreement.

"Thanks Blazer. But this is worrying. What does it mean if there's a Shadow showing up here too?" Ken wondered aloud, thinking of the Shadow Operatives. Yukari and Junpei were in Iwatodai, or were at least nearby, handling their jobs. They needed less activity if they wanted to be able to handle acting and baseball instructing… so they were stationed at Iwatodai. Mitsuru, Akihiko, Aigis were the other half, and they took down Shadow threats outside of Iwatodai by themselves while Fuuka lent them support. Really, Ken, Yukari and Junpei weren't called unless the threat they were dealing with was too tough.

"Groof."

"Yeah, you're right. I should report this and see what they think," Ken nodded, patting Blazer on the head. She whined happily in response, wagging her tail. Picking out his phone, he started his walk back to his house. Once home, he called Mitsuru, telling her exactly what he found.

"This is troubling… Unfortunately, we're still handling the situation over here, so we cannot return to Iwatodai until the threat is subdued," Mitsuru said. "We are almost finished dispatching the last of the Shadows, so we should be back in a few more days."

"Thank you Mitsuru," Ken nodded. "I'll see you when you're back then."

Mitsuru turned off her phone and returned her attention to Akihiko and Aigis. "The last batch we need to destroy is just around the corner. Be ready for anything."

"No problem Mitsuru," Akihiko chuckled, smashing his fists together.

"Let's do our best," Aigis smiled a little.

The three of them walked around to the back of the shrine, finding a group of Shadows, along with a more humanoid Shadow at the back. "Hoho… you must be the three that have been destroying the Shadows my master is sending," the humanoid Shadow giggled. At the very least, it sounded like a girl.

"Who are you?" Aigis asked, pointing her guns at the group of Shadows.

"You may call me Kumo," the Shadow replied with a gleaming smile.

"Then Kumo, we are the Shadow Operatives, and we are here to destroy you," Aigis said, beginning to pepper bullets on a number of the weaker Shadows. None of those attacks were enough to destroy any one of the Shadows, but already there was a window of opportunity for the others to attack in.

"I'd like to see you try," Kumo laughed. She immediately dodged out of the way of the bullets and fired what seemed to be enchanted glowing seal tags at the team. None of them were weak to light attacks, thankfully.

Mitsuru slashed the Mahamon tags that came in her direction with her rapier and used Mind Charge to power up her next magic attack. "So, it has light skills…" she muttered. "Fuuka, are you able to scan the main enemy?" Mitsuru asked.

"I already have," Fuuka said. "It's of the Empress Arcana, and it isn't weak to anything. It blocks Ice and resists Light attacks," she answered.

"Akihiko, Aigis. Focus on the main enemy. I'll take out the lesser Shadows," Mitsuru ordered. Seeing as Bufu skills were her forte, trying to effectively fight against Kumo herself would not be an advantageous match up.

"Roger that," Aigis replied. She jumped ahead of the minion Shadows and confronted Kumo with her machine guns. "Akihiko!" Summoning Pallas Athena, she cast Masukukaja and allowed Akihiko the speed to catch up.

"Thanks Aigis," Akihiko replied, weaving past the Shadows and jumping into the fray.

"How nice of you to join us! Now, shall we dance this dance of death!?" Kumo smiled through her straggly, black hair. Wasting no more time, Kumo used Bufudyne to try and get Akihiko out of the game early, seeing as Ice was his weakness. He didn't expect it, but managed to summon Caesar and use Ziodyne to block the incoming Ice attack. It didn't hit straight on, seeing how disoriented he was, but thankfully Akihiko also didn't get the brunt of the attack.

"Are you alright, Akihiko? You didn't have to join us on your break, you know," Aigis pointed out. She bolted in front of Kumo with her increased speed and head butted her, knocking her head backwards.

"I'll be fine," Akihiko reassured. "They're just going to be mad when they find out what happened to my uniform." Already, there were some cuts and sliced fabric in his police uniform, all of which were caused by wayward Shadow attacks. He'd be fine with a healing spell, but those didn't stitch up thread too, unfortunately.

Kumo came back around with ice surrounding her hand in the form of a drill and it started to rotate wildly; this she aimed at Aigis' arm. Akihiko took his turn to sock the ice from Kumo's fist, ignoring the ice burn. He followed up with another punch to her stomach, but before he could finish his combination, a frigid tornado blast spread from Kumo's body. It not only knocked Akihiko down and left him vulnerable, but forced Aigis some metres back. "Guys, are you alright?" Fuuka asked. "Mitsuru's nearly finished dealing with the other Shadows, so if you need help, I can call her."

Before Akihiko could say that she would do jack shit with her Bufu spells, Aigis interrupted with, "Please tell her to join us as soon as possible. We can handle this until she is done."

"Alright. I'll tell her," Fuuka noted.

"You know, she can hardly do anything if her spells don't work?" Akihiko groaned as he lifted himself to his feet.

"You can hardly do anything if you're knocked down, Akihiko," Aigis pointed out with a sceptical look. She jumped up and began to charge again, putting as much energy as she could muster into the rush. The effects of the Sukukaja spell were starting to fade, and she couldn't waste the opportunity.

Kumo giggled as the ground turned icy and smooth while she started to give off a hellish amount of light. One, Aigis slipped and missed her target. Second, both of them were blinded. "Argh! I can barely see!" Akihiko growled, rubbing his eyes.

Of course, the distraction wasn't all. Kumo grabbed Aigis' leg as she tried to recover, taking delight in her surprised expression. Aigis lost what little footing she had on the ground that squirmed beneath her and was thrown smack dab into Akihiko's chest, who had just managed to get up. Akihiko snarled in frustration, thinking about how he'd just gotten up and had been knocked down.

Lastly, and certainly not least, she froze them to their necks with Bufudyne. They were at least unable to move any of their limbs. "This is quite the predicament," Aigis noted calmly.

"…You think?" Akihiko deadpanned at the ground.

"It was fun playing with you!" Kumo laughed.

"Your demise will be fun too, I'm sure," Mitsuru said, stepping onto the scene, unruffled by the cold surroundings.

"We'll see about that!" Kumo summoned Hamaon tags around Mitsuru, all of them threatening to slash and stab into her. They came in numbers and Mitsuru tried to cut them apart with her rapier. It worked for a little while, but they eventually started to move towards her too. She dodged what she could, but some were starting to make their marks uncomfortably close to her skin.

"Enough!" Mitsuru used a Bufudyne spell to freeze the tags in place and commanded the Hamaon back to Kumo. Knowing about her resistance, she also cast an Ice Break spell. So, when the icicles speared into the Shadow, she was gotten. Hard.

"Are you alright, Akihiko?" Aigis asked as she summoned Pallas Athena to break the ice surrounding them.

"Yeah, but you couldn't have don't that sooner?" Achoo!" Akihiko groaned as he sneezed.

"I'm sorry. But we can now help Mitsuru," Aigis apologised, albeit with a slight smile. She summoned her Persona once more and cast a Matarukaja spell on the team members while Akihiko used Caesar to cast a Rakunda on Kumo.

"I didn't think they'd get out so soon," Kumo exclaimed, although she didn't seem too bothered by the turn of events.

"They are quite the capable team," Mitsuru said in response. She summoned Artemisia and encased Kumo in a whirling storm of snow and ice. She was slashed by the frost and was becoming immobilised by the snow. She couldn't try to break free either; not with the increased power Matarukaja granted and the defence lowering spell just used on her.

"Caesar!" Akihiko rushed to summon his Persona and rained down a pillar of lightning into the tornado. Kumo seemed to be struggling at this point, but that wasn't the end of it. She summoned more Hamaon tags, and sent them spiralling in the opposite direction to form some shield from the damage the Bufudyne was giving her.

"You cannot struggle any longer." Aigis interrupted Kumo by using God's Hand, slamming her into the wall behind with great Physical damage to boot. Kumo slid down onto the ground, the ice receding from the floor towards her.

"You… you guys aren't half bad," she giggled. "But, I'm going to be coming back with more friends, so look forward to our next confrontation! Tootaloo," Kumo said. With that, she disappeared into black and red mist.

Mitsuru breathed out to calm herself before turning to her teammates. "Tres bien. I'd say this is a mission well done." She smiled a little.

"Wonderful job, everyone," Fuuka laughed. "And it was nice to see you again, Akihiko."

"Don't sweat it. It's part of my job to keep the peace anyways," he grinned. "But I better get back to my station. Break's nearly over, so thanks for the scrap."

"One track mind, as always,"Aigis said, imitating Mitsuru's tone of voice.

"That's my line, Aigis," Mitsuru chuckled. "I'll call you again if more Shadow activity is found. We have to head back to Iwatodai, since Ken has requested it. We'll discuss it all then, and we'll relay the information to you as well. It never hurt to be cautious."

"Sounds good. I'll be looking forward to it then," he nodded, jogging back to the police station.

…

Ken had brought Blazer back home after walking her, and returned to his day job. He used to play football in the big leagues, but eventually grew bored of it. Funny that one might think being a librarian was more boring… but not when the same library was filled with Amoebaman manga and who knew what else. And we don't talk about his night job.

That being said, Amaya sometimes went there to study with her friends. Ken was well acquainted with her as a result. This time, she came with Makoto and Shiroe, the latter of which was normal company. Makoto, not so, but it would still be a good chance to not only get better acquainted with him, but to get some more details about the Shadow he fought the day before. "Hello Amaya," he greeted quietly. Libraries being loud was a no-go after all.

"Hey Ken," she replied. "Have any of _those_ been borrowed yet?"

"Nope," he answered cheerfully.

"Wonderful…" Amaya chuckled, imitating the evil chortles of a villain from a kid's TV show.

"Why? You planning to borrow them yourself?" Ken asked.

"Well, yeah. But they aren't for me. In fact, I need you organise him a library card so he can borrow himself. Comes with the joys of studying," she said, pointing her thumb to Makoto, who waved at Ken.

"Oh, no problem," Ken nodded. "I'll get that started in a jiff. What about you, Shiroe?"

"Um, I just needed to extend to borrowing period for one of these books," Shiroe replied, pushing forward all of the books in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. "I'm not done with"

"I wouldn't be either! But I'm impressed that you finished the first and second ones already," Ken commented, putting another stamp in the book's log and scanning Shiroe's card before putting the first two books away.

"I'm… I'm in the middle of the third book," Shiroe replied.

"Whew, you're fast," Ken grinned, handing it back to Shiroe before beginning to set up Makoto's card.

"I'm surprised I can read…" Makoto mumbled.

"Why?" Amaya blinked.

"I wasn't taught how to read before," he shrugged. "But I can read Japanese, English and ancient Greek _really_ well."

Before Amaya could shout, Shiroe muffled her by placing his hand over her mouth. "Interesting… maybe Nyx did something so you'd inherit those skills or something," Ken suggested.

"I should ask her later," Makoto nodded to himself.

"Stop licking my hand," Shiroe said flatly. Amaya's antics never cease to amuse him, but even he wasn't sure the reason she had to choose this particular method over others. He normally did what he did when she was way too loud in a place where she shouldn't be. Like a library.

"Take your fucking hand off my mouth," Amaya growled. And even though her voice was muffled, they could still hear her.

Shiroe nodded and removed a wet wipe from his back and cleaned his hands. "It's a library," he reminded. Amaya scoffed, but decided to tone her voice down anyways.

"I still don't understand though," she muttered.

"It's a good thing he can though," Ken pointed out. "I fail to see what application ancient Greek will have on… anything, to be honest. How'd you find out about that anyways?"

"Internet and Percy Jackson? I mean the movie though," Makoto replied. "I didn't like it much though…" he mumbled.

"People have a hard time making movie adaptions for books," Shiroe piped in.

"Apparently so… Anyways," Ken stopped midsentence as his mobile started vibrating. "Argh, I'll be back. I should be quick," he said, backing off from his desk.

Ken answered the call with, "What's up Mitsuru?"

"I just wanted to let you know that we'll be at the Kirijo Mansion tonight at 8:15, or thereabouts. Are you free then?" she asked.

"Yeah. Thanks, I'll be there. See ya," Ken said.

"Not a problem. I'll see you then," Mitsuru replied, ending the call.

"Who was that?" Makoto asked curiously as Ken returned.

"Mitsuru. She'll be over here with the rest of the Shadow Operatives later. Have some things to discuss about the Shadows popping up. Your dads will probably be along too," Ken explained. "Which reminds me… mind telling me about the Shadow you fought?" he pointed his question to Makoto.

"Oh, sure," Makoto nodded.

After a short while, he relayed the circumstances of him meeting the Shadow, the Shadow's name and appearance, and what it said.

"Strange. So, you defeated it, I take it?" Ken asked.

"Yeah. But Arashi said he'll be back," he sighed.

"I'm not sure what that means yet, but maybe it'll be clear later," Ken mused aloud.

"Hopefully…" Shiroe nodded.

"Now about those books…" Amaya grinned.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll get them," Ken laughed.


	12. Wolf and Raven - Original

True to her words, Mitsuru and the rest of her group sans Akihiko were at the Kirijo mansion. Ken's half including Blazer, Yukari and Junpei were there, and last but not least; Kanashi, Yashiro and Hibiki were there.

"In short, I can't come," Kanashi heard.

"Then we'll relay the rest to ya later then," he replied.

"Sorry." Beep.

"I take it Kurow cannot join us?" Aigis asked.

"Yeah, he's got his hands full," Kanashi nodded.

"I guess we can't really help it eh?" Junpei nodded sagely, folding his arms.

"Indeed…" Mitsuru agreed.

"Ken, can you tell us about what you found?" Fuuka asked.

He nodded. "Yeah. Blazer and I were taking a walk and along the way, she smelled something strange. She said it smelled like Shadow blood, along with Makoto, who's staying with Kanashi," Ken explained, gesturing to Blazer and Kanashi as he spoke. Next, he explained what he gathered from Makoto's account.

"Interesting, but I'm wondering what the new Shadows are showing up for," Yukari said.

"I _told_ Yashiro not to jinx it, but would he listen? Nooo," Kanashi said, pretending to be irritable about it.

"It was hardly my fault," Yashiro muttered.

"We're not really sure yet. What happened on your side?" Hibiki asked, steering the conversation where it was meant to and looking over Mitsuru's half of the Shadow Operatives.

"Um, our group was chasing a rogue group of Shadows to Hokkaido Shrine… they'd been destroying property and the like, so we had to contain the damage, as usual," Fuuka piped up. "There were less powerful Shadows, and they weren't too tough. Akihiko ended up finding us there, so he joined in."

Aigis agreed. "There was however, a much more powerful Shadow controlling the minions. It was troublesome, even for Akihiko and I both taking it on. Mitsuru helped us, and we destroyed the Shadow…"

But it said it would be back. The Shadow told us its name was 'Kumo'," Mitsuru added.

"Haha, storm cloud," HIbiki chuckled, making everyone turn towards him. "What? I doubt that's much of a connection."

"But one thing," Ken said.

"What is it?" Yukari asked.

"They're intelligent, like the ones we fought before. They even have names," Ken pointed out, referring to the events in Inaba.

"What's that got to do with anything?" Junpei asked.

"They could be fully formed Shadows of other people," he shrugged. 'There might be a pattern, telling us the amount or something similar… but I could be wrong."

"We cannot dismiss the possibility," Mitsuru said. "But I'm afraid that it will be difficult to create a pattern from only two leads."

"I suppose we might just have to wait," Yashiro muttered. "At the same time, we also have to be vigilant. We don't really know what's coming."

"I agree with Yashiro. It's a good thing that part of the Shadow Operatives is a mobile team," Aigis nodded.

"It is true enough. Are there any objections?" Mitsuru asked.

No-one spoke.

"Alright then. We'll have to continue our current course of action, but exercise more caution than normal," she ordered.

"Sounds good to me! But I'm kinda wondering something," Kanashi exclaimed.

"Like what? Whatever could be wrong?" Junpei asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, we have our own headquarters, even if we don't use it as much as we used to. So what's the big deal with calling us out to the mansion?" he asked, glancing around the room before his gaze landed on Mitsuru, who had an amused smile on.

"Alright, you caught me. It's been a while since we've all gathered at once… so there is a feast awaiting all of us in the dining hall," she laughed a little.

"Seriously!? Thank youuuuuu senpai!" Junpei cheered, making Yukari shake her head.

…

Kurow gave a sigh as Muzumi finally went to sleep. She was always so full of energy it was hard to put her to sleep. _He_ almost fell asleep reading that story about the pink alligator and the bird. Not because it was boring. Far from. His voice was though.

He was about ot leave the room, when he saw a pair of yellow eyes outside the window. If he had hackles, they would've been raised. "A Shadow… now?" he growled, eyes narrowed. And it just stared at him, a grin on its face.

Unluckily for Kurow was that the weapon he used before to fight off Shadows was in a separate room. Doubly unlucky—

CRASH

That little prick broke the window.

Kurow looked quickly back at Muzumi, who was definitely wide awake from that loud sound. He hugged her close, shielding her well from the shards of glass. Not wasting time to mince words or explain to Muzumi what was going on, his eyes gleamed as he summoned his Persona. "Omega Cluster…" he snarled. One of the two ravens fired a dark beam of energy at the Shadow, but it looked to be unaffected by the attack when it phased through his dark body like a ghost.

"Give me a name before I fucking castrate what little dick you have!" Kurow demanded harshly, that even Muzumi felt afraid of what her father was going to do.

The Shadow shuckled. "I am Hayate."

"And I'm still killing you," Kurow snapped, commanding Muninn to use Nova Kaiser. A beam of white this time, shot into Hayate. The Shadow growled as some of his 'body' faded away, leaving a hole where the beam hit.

Hayate roared and summoned blades of wind to his side, rapid firing them at Kurow. They were fast and trying to dodge while holding onto a girl, even if she wasn't that heavy, was still a ended copping some grazes and cut from the Garudyne attacks in the end, and even Muzumi could see that.

"Daddy, you're hurt!" she exclaimed.

"Haha… don't worry. I'll be fine," he reassured. "If I leave you here, I'm going to get rid of the bad guy for you. Can you be a good girl and stay here?" Kurow asked, stroking her hair. He was getting wounded, but he didn't and couldn't care. Muzumi was going to be safe.

"U-Um… okay daddy," she replied, putting out her pinky. "Promise?"

"Promise," Kurow nodded and put her onto the ground. He turned back towards Hayate, wounds stinging, searing, and his eyes narrowed. Hayate had been amusing himself with the exchange between Kurow and Muzumi, but it ended once he was tackled out the window and forced into a back full of concrete. "You're going to pay…" he muttered, punching him in the face and stomach, and really anywhere else he could.

"We'll see about that," Hayate managed to say.

…

"You're here again," Makoto mumbled, giving glares to the Shadows that had shown up on their doorstep. No really, they just up and knocked. It was Arashi in his hoodie and Kumo dressed in white.

"Yes," Arashi nodded. "You can guess what we're here for then."

"Yeah, and I need you outta here," Makoto replied by smashing his shoulder into Arashi, and by extension, Kumo since she was right behind him.

"Great job me, great job…" Kumo muttered on the ground. "Get your head outta my crotch Arashi!" she bellowed, starting to wriggle out from underneath him.

"Ow…" He slowly stood up and flicked his knife out from his pocket. "Okay, wasn't expecting that, a shoulder to the face…"

"I sincerely hope that you know I was holding back before…" Makoto deadpanned as his eyes glowed bright blue.

"I know that," Arashi sighed.

"Good." Then Makoto punched Arashi in the gut.

…

Yuri just couldn't sleep. He growled, frustrated and tired of the monotonous white walls, the monotonous white ceiling and the monotonous white bed sheets. If the place looked any bluer from the night, it would've come ever closer to being a prison cell rather than a second home. Which he supposed, was partly true. The nurses and doctors knew him pretty well since he frequented the place more often than he really would've liked.

"Lightning strikes the town… the fires burn it down… through the storm and the darkness they go… from the town that they once called home…" Yuri mumbled softly, humming a tune as he went. He wanted to try and figure out the solos and rhythm guitar to that one, but of course…

"I have caaaaake, I really like cake… and spaaaaace, I really like space."

"Get outta here… you're terrible at this, and you can't sing," he sighed. Wait… did this mean he wasn't alone. "Who's there?" Yuri asked, sitting up. A wave of nausea passed through his body as he did, but he kept a firm grip on the sheets and forced himself to position. Damned leukaemia…

"I'm Toboe!" the voice replied. The hospital door opened, revealing a boy around his age wearing a black coat with a head of long, dark hair. His eyes were yellow. Besides that fact, he kinda looked like a nicer version of Izaya Kamukura from Danganronpa 2. "I was actually sent here to kill you!" Toboe said happily.

"Wait, what?" Yuri stammered, jumping out of his bed. However, he felt a wave of weakness at the worst possible moment and collided with the ground, nearly taking his IV down with him. Growling at the bruise on his shoulder, he stared up at Toboe.

"You heard what I said," Toboe grinned. "But I'm not gonna. Not yet, anyways…" he chuckled. "So, let's talk about stuff!"

"What am I going to talk about with a guy that wants to kill me?" Yuri asked, not calming down at all.

"That sounds like a funny song lyrics," Toboe giggled.

"…I'm not inclined to agree," he muttered.

…

You know, taking on two on one is kinda hard. As soon as he attacked on Shadow, the one guy he didn't attack tried to hit him. Makoto dodged all the time, but he was always on the defensive. He could've used more power, but… well, trying had some nasty side-effects and he wasn't looking forward to that. One the other hand, the leftover ability wasn't very useful in this situation.

"He strikes… and he scores!"

What?

The body of yet another Shadow smacked into Kumo, ending up in a similar situation to Arashi earlier. "Hayate. Head out of crotch. Now."

Hayate hovered from Kumo and helped her up. "Sorry," he mumbled.

"Oh, there's MORE of these fuckers!? Great! Just great…" Kurow complained.

"This is a wonderful situation," Arashi sighed. "Now there's two of them."

"Riveting isn't it," Kumo drawled. Her eyes glinted and a blast of cold wind blew both Makoto and Kurow off their feet while they were distracted. Makoto recovered quickly with minor injuries, but Kurow just had his weakness hit.

Kurow groaned, shaking the frost from his hair. He just _had_ to be weak to Ice, didn't he? "Need a hand, Kurow?" Makoto's question was more like a statement as he grabbed his wrist and pulled him up. "I guess you're weak to ice," he noted, ignoring Kurow's baleful look.

He nodded though. "Psh… stupid poser…" Kurow muttered on and on about 'those damned Shadows'. "Weaknesses."

"They don't have any. Resistances, I dunno," Makoto said. "Bet she blocks light though." With how many times she'd been using Hamaon, he could just guess and probably get it right.

"Great," Kurow sighed. "I'm still killing them though!"

…

Yuri sighed at Toboe. He really didn't like him. He wasn't one to usually hate people either, so it meant there was something more to this, or Toboe was just annoying as fuck. He found the latter more plausible. "This is hardly what I would call a conversation," he said.

"Oh, I know…" he replied as gleeful as ever. "I'm just messing with you," Toboe said, looking flatly at Yuri. And he had a smile; not the kind of beaming ones he had before, but a sly one that bared his intentions. "You're so easy to annoy."

Toboe just did one serious about-face. "Uh… really?" Yuri asked, not sure what to say.

"Yeah… you're not one to react much though," he said with a disappointed sigh, making Yuri frown. So? "Does it hurt to know I can get under your cool, calm façade that you have going on?" Toboe smirked as Yuri frowned. He could tell from his trembling knuckles and lip, from how Yuri was biting the inside of his mouth to keep himself from saying anything unformulated.

"I don't know what you mean…" Yuri said through clenched teeth.

"Yes, you do," Toboe shrugged. "You're scared."

"So what?" Yuri narrowed his eyes.

"I'll put it to you that I know every single thing about you," he smiled, making Yuri's frown even more pronounced.

"Don't be daft."

"You hate that you were cursed with that leukaemia of yours. You're so done with being held back by it… and I think you even hate how your father babies you," Toboe said and his grew as Yuri paled. "You're so pathetic that even your own body won't let you do what you want!"

Yuri backed away, staring at Toboe. No, that wasn't true…

"You're scared of all that too. Any moment you could end up dropping dead, and you won't be able to be free, huh…" Toboe sighed, almost sounding sympathetic.

"How…?"

"I said I know everything about you! Why? Connect the dots already."

"You're not me."

"Well sure, I knew you'd say that. And this'd be about the part where I'd go berserk, and be like 'mwahahaha, I feel sooooo powerful!' But that isn't my job…" Toboe shrugged, summoning what looked like a black electric guitar into his hands. "I said I was going to kill you… and we talked. It was nice."

"W-Why?" Yuri gulped.

"I'm not going to tell you that," Toboe scoffed. He swung the electric guitar at Yuri. He was slow, but Yuri could tell that if he got even one hit from that, he wasn't going to get back up again even if he wanted to. Yuri barely got out of the way, but slammed right into the wall as he did. "Wow, you can't even dodge properly? I was barely aiming."

"S-Shut up," he growled. Yuri tried to regather his breath, whatever was left of it. He didn't want to die… He couldn't.

"Weak." Toboe rushed for him again, and swung once more, bringing Yuri to the corner of the room. And he smashed his guitar into his chest.

…

"I always have to get the hard job…" Arashi complained. "Sorry Kumo, Hayate. Why don't you go after who you were supposed to?"

"Psh, fine," Kumo sighed. With that, they disappeared into red and black mist.

"What the hell!?" Kurow exclaimed.

"They just up and disappeared," Makoto muttered. "You really think this is giving you an advantage?"

"No… but hey, it distracted you, didn't it?" Arashi shrugged. He too disappeared, leaving Makoto and Kurow behind.

"Well… shit!" Kurow growled.

"We have to go and find them," Makoto said.

"Heh. Ain't no problem with me." He summoned Huginn and Muninn, and the two ravens split off in different directions. "Let's go."

…

Yuri slid down against the wall, clutching his chest and gasping for breath. It felt as if his ribs were crushed by spider web-like cracks, and they were spreading. He almost couldn't let out any sounds other than whimpers since his lungs were out of air to.

"Hmph…" Toboe was about to smash his guitar into Yuri's head, but the doors slid open.

And did Hibiki look angry? Well yes. He did. "Yuri! Get away from him you bastard…" Yuri was a little too focused on trying not to die, but he barely registered the fact that his dad just swore. And he pretty much never swore. Okay, maybe he only said 'bastard', but still!

Hibiki's began to glow, and a blue, 6 metre dragon appeared coiled behind him, letting out an equally huge roar.

"Is that a threat?" Before Toboe could finish what he'd started, his limbs were frozen in place. The dragon seemed to be staring him down, which was why the ice was focused only on him.

"It's a promise." Hyou Suisei disappeared and instead morphed into a blue katana in his hands.


	13. Darkness, Chaos, Changes and Plot Notes

**Hello! Lemme just lay out what the general plot for DoC was going to be and the changes I was planning.**

**Prequel Changes:**

Kurow was never going to marry someone else because he's never really found anyone that spoke to him as much as Hikari (who died in the prequel).

In the rewrite of DoD, Yashiro was actually going to have a love interest in one of Erebus's Assassins. Her code name was Valencia, but he first met her in her everyday persona, Yui. He ends up connecting with her because Yui reminds him of one of his deceased friends, Mari.

Minato's personality was actually going to be a lot more soft-spoken in the rewrite of DoD, and he has a very awkward relationship at first with the almost mute Nyx, who was completely unable to communicate in Japanese.

Erebus shows up earlier and shit goes down.

**Rewrite Sequel Changes:**

In this sequel, Hibiki has a relationship with a woman named Minako (though not to be confused with the Female Protagonist from P3P), and with Mayumi in the original. Minako is actually a borrowed character from Decode The Raging Philosopher, who once planned to write a story called 'Shadow Hunters'; a sequel to DoD, but preceding DoC. Minako appears as a major character in it. I asked him about it, and he said I could borrow Minako for DoC, not that I ever followed through with it (she was fun to write for one chapter though!) Minako is a rough and tumble girl with a bit of a mouth and a temper, but she cares about her son, Yuri, a hell of a lot.

In the rewrite of DoC, Makoto was going to be rather aloof and closed off so he could hide his inferiority complex in comparison to other Gods and demi-gods. According to the canon I made up for this, Gods gained their power from the legends made about them and the strength of the belief in that deity. Because Makoto was a new god, he had no purpose and no believers; thus, he was weak, even if he appears strong to the Persona users in comparison.

**Overall Sequel:**

Basically the Shadows that were featured (Shadows like Kumo) were going to become Personas for everybody except for Makoto.

Shiroe and Amaya were going to be a pairing, because the shy guy with the rough and tough attitude of Amaya was a funny dynamic.

Shiroe's Persona is Cain (evolves into Qayin), the first murderer, and he specialises in physical, wind, dark and rage attacks, but Shiroe often loses control of his Persona because he doesn't like what it represents about him. Amaya's Persona was Snedronningen (evolves to Skadi), specialising in ice, light, pierce and fear attacks.

Yuri and Makoto were going to be a pairing, because it played into the idea that strength doesn't come from strength of body, but from strength of will.

Despite Yuri's bodily atrophy, he is the most powerful Persona user out of the four by strength alone. For rule of cool, Yuri enabled attacks by playing on his electric guitar. His Persona, Raijuu (evolves to Narukami, who is more or less an original Persona that represents the power of thunderstorms) specialises in electric, water, regenerate and mirror spells.

Blazer, the dog ASW, has the Persona known as Skoll (evolves into Fenrir)! Specialises in fire spells... and I dunno. I forgot. But it was going to be epic. I want a wolf holding a sword in its mouth to fight. *looks at Sif from Dark Souls*

It turns out the threat is from the incoming primordial god known as 'Chaos' (or Khaos), and it threatened to engulf the world in darkness, which was why Nyx sent Makoto to try and assist the Persona users from afar.

Makoto learns over time to open up to others. When Yuri suffers death at the hands of Makoto's Shadow and his horde of Shadows, Makoto realises later on that he has to carry on despite the loss; despite the fear. Because of this, he learns that his true power comes from 'courage', or the ability to stand against evil without falter, after acknowledging the fear and negative feelings that might be holding him back.

This power allows him to seal Chaos, just like his father, strengthening his legend as the Demi-God of Courage. In the process, Makoto is called away from his duties in the human world and returns to his mother, Nyx, to maintain the seal against Chaos.

**So yeah, that's basically the story in a nutshell. There was going to be a lot of bonding time and fluff in-between for downtime, but that's stuff that comes from me just wanting to write about specific character interactions rather than plot. So yeah. that's DoD and DoC in a nutshell!**


End file.
